CI)e Cojctes or So^altsts 



IN AMERICA 



SLIGHT HISTORICAL TRACINGS, FROM THE 

FOOTPRINTS OF SIR JOHN JOHNSON 

AND HIS COTEMPORARIES IN 

THE REVOLUTION. 




" Jb fas aut ab nefas." 



Albany 

Press of Joel Munsell's Sons 

82 State Street 

1882 



C|)e Cortes oj ilo^alists 



IN AMERICA 



SLIGHT HISTORICAL TRACINGS, FROM THE 
FOOTPRINTS OF SIR JOHN JOHNSON 
AND HIS COTEMPORARIES IN 
THE REVOLUTION. 



'hj^ 



j^ y 



T. BAILEY MYERS. 



M fas aut ah nefas. " 



Albany 

Pjcss of Joel Munsell's Sons 

82 State Street 

1882 



Vv V/. Vw • 



THE TORIES OR LOYALISTS. 




HE accompanying waifs, possessing in 
tiiemselves as little intrinsic interest as 
continuity, are a few random footprints 
of Sir John Johnson's life of exile, spared 
by the tides of a century which have 
effaced many of his once deeper im- 
pressions on American affairs. They 
casually fell into the writer's historical 
collection, mingled with other imported manuscripts, proving 
at least, that some antiquarian in the old world had considered 
them worthy of preservation. 

The knowledge that amongst such fragments have been 
found the key to valuable facts, and the elucidation of past 
events obscured by time, has, as we know, caused a growing 
interest in the preservation in public or private collections or 
in print, of anything of a public character, produced by the 
brain and hands of men who made some mark on their time 
before passing away. 

What seems of little value to one, may become of interest 
to another, and we know that there are few • things existing 
which have not a place when the problem of supply and demand 
is solved. Even a rock which has long cumbered the ground 
becomes valuable when broken up and concreted into a wall. 
18 



Tories or Loyalists 



Although these papers referred to throw very little, and that a 
later light upon the unfortunate career of Sir John Johnson, 
which will be found more fully considered by experienced hands 
in the preceding pages, they have a value as a means of pre- 
senting incidentally, such letters of his cotemporaries as space 
permits, connected with events in which he participated. In 
themselves they contain little of historical interest and treat 
more of counting of the cost of war than of its more interesting 
details. 

Some investigator of facts may find in them a suggestion, 
or possibly a warning, against the repetition of such unremunera- 
tive outlay, attending the more valuable loss of blood. To 
another, they may seem no more instructive, than the brick 
which the fool in the fable carried with him in his travels, as 
an illustration of the house in which he lived. 

The knowledge that Mr. Stone, who has already supplemented 
his father's valuable service in furnishing interesting details of 
struggles between the colonists of France and England, and 
those of the Revolution on that debatable ground, the northern 
frontier, in which the romantic Valley of the Mohawk was 
often a base of British operations,' was occupied in connection 
with General de Peyster ( an enthusiastic student and commen- 
tator on many of the military events of both continents), in 
preparing a brochure intended to illustrate the military career 
of Sir John Johnson, and aiming in a biographical sketch, to 
remove some of the unanswered obloquy which was piled 
upon him as the exiled adherent of a lost and unpopular cause," 

' The Life of Sir William Johnson and The Campaigns of General Burgoyne. 

* As an illustration of the then widely prevailing sentiment, the citizens of Worcester, 
Mass., voted May 19, 1783, " That in the opmion of this town, it would be truly 
dangerous to the peace, happiness, liberty and safety of these States, to suffer those 



in the Revolution. 5 

with an Orderly Book as a basis, has induced the contribution 
of these fragments as an annex to their work. 

These prefatory notes are added at Mr. Stone's suggestion. 

The task of Gen. de Peyster would seem to any unbiased 
reader to be a natural one to a collateral descendant thus qualified, 
and infinitely more practicable since our own experiences in the 
great Civil War. 

In the division of section, family and friends which it 
induced, in the bitterness of the feeling and vehement, denun- 
ciation of motive and action it called forth, were reproduced 
those of the Revolution of 1 776, only upon a grander scale. Then 
men weighed their duties and responsibilities, and the relative 
claims of the flag under which they were born, or those of the 
States in which they were located, and compared the grievances 
which had caused the separation from Great Britain with 
those claimed to have succeeded under that subsequent Union 
of the States. In recalling the terms of ridicule and reproach 
engendered'by hatred, exchanged between the defenders of that 
Union and the Confederates, and the little credit given by either 

who, the moment the bloody banners were displayed, abandoned their native land, 
turned parricides, and conspired to involve their country in tumult, ruin and blood, 
to become the subjects of and reside in this government; that it would be not only 
dangerous, but inconsistent with justice, policy, our past laws, the public faith, and 
the principles of a free and independent state, to admit them ourselves, or to have 
them forced upon us without our consent." * -y;- * * " That until the further order 
of the government, they (the committees of Correspondence, Inspection and Safety), 
will, with decision, spirit, and firmness, endeavor to enforce and carry into execution 
the several laws of this Commonwealth, respecting these enemies of our rights, and 
the rights of mankind ; give information, should they know of any obtruding them- 
selves into any part of this State, suffer none to remain in this town, but cause to be 
confined immediately, for the purpose of transportation according to law, any that 
may presume to enter it." These were the general terms meted out to the Tories, 
recorded in the " Journal and Letters of Samuel Curwen, Judge of Admiralty," a 
" Harvard Man " of 1735, and in his time a valued citizen. Although not an 
active partisan he passed into exile through his scruples in 1775, '"''• ^^ ^^ ^*" 
ceptional case was allowed to return, in the ensuing year, to live and die at his old 
home in Salem, in 1802. 



6 Tories or Loyalists 

to the sense of duty which actuated their opponents, we can 
understand, now that temporary feeling is rapidly passing away, 
that in the earlier struggle there clearly frequently existed as 
honest and as opposite convictions of right. 

Surely the time has arrived when we can discuss without 
temper, the motives, and appreciate the loyalty to their gov- 
ernment, the sacrifice of life and property, and the sufFermgs 
by confiscation and exile of that valuable material for continued 
citizenship — numbering at least twenty thousand of the mhabi- 
tants of a sparsely settled and devastated country — then trans- 
ferred as Refugees into Nova Scotia and Canada3 to form 

3 The following paper endorsed "i6o, Proposals for a General Naturalization 
R-.n "from he contents and the appearance of the carefully wr.tten manuscript, and 
S the obTervationsThkh follow k was evidently submitted to ?-!— ^ -°" ^ '" 
the Peace- U is considered worthy of a place, as showing the value attached by the 
Brt-Jh Government to her exiled adherents, and her es.re - --them „ 
her remaining Colonies, as to her a tried element or populafon. It -''' ^f "'^^^^^^^^^^^ 
lit w^ile providing for all classes of Tories, it mgen.ously invtes the Rebels 
whom k assies vo'be already dissatisfied with their new experiment, to jom them. 

" The Inhabitants of the United States who took part with the British Gov- 
ernment by remling or by continuing within the Lines durmg the War .n America 

Tt hLeTnce removed into any part of the British Dominions havmg never done 

respect, in Americans who d d not remove within the Lines, have 

they took the Oath o Alleg. ^^^^ ^^„ ^^ey consistently with 

"AT;hrv n t ra L to Ce treatld as 'subjects returning from a foreign country, .„ 
wilch a'dvel Srcur^stances have detained them, contrary to their Inclinations and 



in the Revolution, 7 

the best elements of population in a country in which they 
declared on their sad departure, they expected to endure " nine 
months of winter and three of cold weather in each year." 
When the subsequent war of 1812 was carried to, and across 
the Canadian frontier, our soldiers found in this rejected material 
their most determined opponents. They naturally had little in 
common with those, once their countrymen, but then only geo- 
graphically their neighbors, still politically their foes, and the 

Wishes ? There are in the United States, men of a different description, who 
collectively form a numerous Body, men who from the first uniformly refused to 
take any active part against the British Government, who for some time refused to 
take the Oath of Allegiance to the United States, but were by the force of Vexations, 
personal insult, and menances, finally brought to submit to preserve their estates 
from confiscation, and themselves and families from suffering the last extremities of 
Want and Misery. Those men, from their coming in so late, and by compulsion, 
to acknowledge the Supremacy of the United States, did not regain either the Friend- 
ship or Confidence of their Countrymen, they simply brought their persons and property 
within the protection of the Law, and even that was in some instances at least, but 
nominally such. These men, whose political principles have not been changed, 
wish to remove, if it could be done on any Valuable Terms. But they must think 
it a hard case to be considered as Aliens, and be obliged to sue for Acts of Na- 
turalization, at a great and ruinous expense and Loss of Time, and to pray and pay 
dearly to be declared, what they are conscious in their Hearts, that they have ever 
been, British Subjects. The last and most numerous Class, and who have neither 
Law or Equity to urge, but good policy only, are Merchants, the middle and lower 
Orders of Farmers, Shipwrights, Fishermen and Sailors. That is, those of them 
who voluntarily, and without any Force or compulsion, took an early and active part 
in favor of the Revolution, who at the Time judging from appearances and repre- 
sentations made to them, of Absolute Subjection and Slavery on the one hand, and 
the prospect of Liberty, an exemption from Taxes, and unbounded and unrestrained 
Commerce on the other, were naturally led, and as it were necessarily impelled, by 
the Motives and Objects before them, to take the part which they then took, but 
who on reflection and experience perceive their Error, find all those favorable 
prospects vanished, and in their place Factions and Licentiousness predominant, 
their persons or Estates loaded with intolerable Taxes, and their Commerce, more 
circumscribed and burthened than ever, they are solicitous to regain their former 
political situation, by removing within the British Dominions, and returning to their 
Ancient and hereditary Allegiance, if they can be received and admitted to the same 
privileges, as others of their rank and orders in Life, are entitled to. With regard 
to the first, that is, the Loyalists already removed, there can be no question. For 
the two next, the actual non-jurors who are as such to this day, and those who by 
Violence and Menances, were forced to take Oath; of Allegiance to the New Govern- 
ment, much may be urged in their favor, both in Law and Equity. As to the 
re-admission of the latter, by much the most numerous Body, and rapidly increasing, 
political considerations and motives alone can be urged, and those if all the circum- 



8 Tories or Loyalists 

occupants of their forfeited homes. Compare this adjustment in 
1783 with the more wise policy of our government in the late 
struggle, where, after the suppression of armed resistance, the 
citizens were soon restored to civil rights, and their property — 
not lost by military results, and the attendant reduction of 
values — and were reunited in a common administration of 
public affairs. 

History written in the progress or at the termination of 
a war, is usually formed like the government by the victorious 

stances are understood, and the consequences fully examined into, will prove as 
forcible as anything that can be urged for the former. It is therefore proposed that 
a General Declaratory Act should be passed, putting the situation of all those who 
have already removed from the United States, and Settled in any part of the British 
Dominions, beyond any future question or doubt, declaring that all who were formerly 
British Subjects in any part of the United States or born of Parents who were 
British Subjects in those States, previous to the late Treaty of Peace, shall on their 
removal into any part of the British Dominions in America, either on the Continent, 
or in the West India Islands, and on taking and subscribing the Oath and declara- 
tion which shall be acquired by them, shall be admitted to all the rights and pri- 
vileges of free and natural born subjects of Great Britain, provided that their removal, 
and taking the Oath be within four years from the passing such Act, provided also 
that they bring certificates of their having been formerly British Subjects, in the 
United States when Colonies, or the Children of such Subjects. The oaths to be 
administered by Magistrates named for that purpose, and recorded in the public 
Records of the province or Colony where the same shall be taken. 

ist Observation. There will be no objection to that part of such an Act, as refers 
to the Declared, and actually removed Loyalist. 

2d Observation. In regard to the two second, no material exception can be taken 
to persons continuing. Non-jurors are Loyalists, not yet removed within the British 
Dominion, their not rtmo'ving on the e-vacuation of JVeiv York is no Objection^ as too 
many luere then under an absolute and pressing necessity to remo-ve^ so that their re- 
maining, became a favor to those tuho did remo-ve, and those forced to submit to tie 
Oath imposed upon them, are to be considered as being nearly in the same predicament. 

But 3dly, if these are admitted, it is hardly possible to prevent the last description from 
coming in under their Character, not inconsistent with that of a Merchant, a 
Farmer, a Shipwright, a Fisherman, or a Sailor, these orders of men are immediately 
<ivanted, and in Great Numbers, in No'va Scotia and Canada, and as those orders of 
men find themsel-ves pressed by taxes in the United States and their Commerce restricted 
as Aliens and Foreigners by this and other Nations, and burtheved -with duties and 
imports by their oiun Go-vernment they ivill naturally incline to remo've and such an 
encouragement may probably render No-va Scotia and Canada populous, and rich in a 
•very feiv years. 



in the Revolution. 9 

sentiment. Vae victis ! It is left to posterity in most cases to 
do justice to the unfortunate. 

In Painting and Cartography, truth to nature, and accuracy, 
are indispensible to value. We continue our appreciation of 
Old Masters, and admire and even yet sail by the carefully 
based and grandly executed Charts of the earlier centuries ; 
while we also accept the new school of Art, as well as the 
improved Maps which several nations, notably including our own 
vie in perfecting.^ Why should not History, which records, 
the action of what is held as nature's noblest work, be 
ranked as a kindred art ? While it would be the act of a 
vandal to alter an old masterpiece, it may be the duty of 
an humble painter to restore it, and the right of all Artists to 
seek to improve upon it. 

No careful cross reader has failed to detect palpable errors in 
history, possibly injected in hasty compilation, from ill founded 
rumor, misconception, or partisan zeal, perhaps allowed to 
remain until too late for available cotemporaneous correction, 
by the indifference, or individuality, of even a worthy actor. 
It would seem as though in all ages, men, while naturally 
desiring to be recorded as famous in public affairs, or 
in the field, have permitted the notable achievements of their 
assistants to be condensed in their own. Often the resort 
to Official Records has corrected hasty narrative and changed 

4 An examination of the progress of this science in essential details, although 
artistic embellishment is less used than formerly, would appear interesting to every 
one connected with some portion of the surface delineated. 

The American " Geographical Society," only a few years since still a problematical 
undertaking, now grown into a widely appreciated and amply sustained fact j has largely 
through the unremitting attention of its President, Chief Justice Daly, collected in its 
Map-room one of the most complete series ever formed by a technical institution, 
affording an opportunity to those who would appreciate Cartography to examine its 
claim to be recognized as high Art. 



lo Tories or Loyalists 

the complexion of what has long been accepted as facts. 
Such investigations even centuries after, when applied to the his- 
tory of our late war, or that we are now making, will doubtless 
prove the shears of Nemesis and continue to clip off a 
surplus fringe of long seated error. 

To aid in such researches and to make its illustration more 
complete, Old letters, Documents and Diaries s of public interest 
have each a use. Letters we oftenest rely upon for cotem- 
porary testimony. Diaries kept for personal reference or 
amusement, even when meagre in detail, but written without 
the intention of publication, or of influencing the views of 
others, and so possessing the value of disinterested testimony 
at the period as to events, persons and dates, have furnished 
valuable acquisitions to printed history for the reason that they 
were records of personal impression only and reserved until 
excitement had passed away. The Orderly Books or Diaries 
of regiments, have also afforded interesting details of service, 
against accepted error or conflicting testimony, fixing dates, 
positions, the number and description of a force, and the com- 
pass of its movements, and when annotated by a skillful hand 

• 5 The " History of New York, in the Revolutionary War," by the able but cynical 
Judge Thomas Jones — published through the liberality of one of his relatives, Mr. 
Tohn D. Jones, and ably edited by another, Mr. Edward Floyd de Lancey, under the 
auspices of the New York Historical Society in 1879, with copious notes and re- 
ferences, is a rich mine to which any person interested in this subject, may pro- 
fitably turn from this merely suggestive commentary. The fierce impartiality with 
which he criticises Whig and Tory, soldier and civilian, induces additional credence 
to the many curious facts he recorded in exile, of men and events with which he 
was familiar. A letter from General Huntington to his son, while occupying his 
fine town house, east of the City Hall, — - in that collection — expresses gratitude to 
him for planting the fruit he was enjoying at his quarters, and its fine view of the 
harbor. His country estate at Fort Neck, is preserved in the family by an entail that 
prevented confiscation. This, even with the letter books of Governor Cadwallader 
Golden, published by that Society, cross read with Judge William Smith's " His- 
tory of the Province of New York," would in themselves afford an opening for 
a research similar to that of Carlyle, for the truthful inwardness of aflfairs at that 
period, in the city. 



in the Revolution. ii 

and published, have furnished the clew to much information 
otherwise lost from the woof of history. 

Those who have found entertainment in d.elving into the 
controversial folios of partisan writers, full of what appeared 
to them to be truths, have realized how easily, and honestly, 
men may differ. 

In England in the varied changes in the control of a divided 
people, by Charles I, or by the Parliament, the Common- 
wealth or the Restoration, those of each in turn had 
the opportunity of disseminating such convictions, to approving 
readers, and for posterity to consider and compare. As an 
example of their utility, it was amon2;st such discordant narra- 
tions — much of which he styled "Shot Rubbish" — that Car- 
lyle, and others, have searched analogically for facts, and it was 
from such neglected authorities that he derived many of the con- 
clusions, which give color to his illustration of the "Letters and 
Speeches of Oliver Cromwell," probably destined to survive 
those crude " Reminiscences " of his own career, which have 
recently disappointed his appreciators. The peculiarities of his 
inverted expression, and thought provoking style, once com- 
prehended, the result of those researches appears to present to 
the reader, even in a concentrated form, the man, his impulses, 
and surroundings, often overlooked before in the consideration 
of the narrative of his remarkable career. 

From the mass of such conflicting testimony, has also been 
in part exhun.ed at different periods, the material from which 
such accepted writers as Hume, Smollett, Gibbon, Robertson, 
Macauley, Alison, Mahon, and many others less broadly known, 
have erected with the increasing impartiality attending later in- 
vestigation. Monuments to their country, creditable to the work- 



12 Tories or Loyalists 

men. Each, in his way has apparently sought to form safe 
resting places for conviction, by substituting what, after careful 
inspection, appeared to possess the solidity of fact, for what the 
impulse of the hour had concreted, but time, and closer in- 
vestigation, pronounced unreliable. 

Some of such investigators, have been impressed with certain 
coincidences between that Great English Revolution, and our 
own of 1776. 

Arising, in each case amongst the same race, firm in con- 
viction and resolute in assertion, inspired by similar complaints 
of oppression and sense of right, resulting alike in divided 
sentiment as to the proper extent of Prerogative, and the 
remedy against its encroachments, involving at first, heated 
discussion in public assemblies, filling the minds of many 
well meaning citizens with doubt as to a course rendered 
difficult to fix upon by conflicting ties or interests, and finally 
precipitating in one case the Mother Country and in the other 
her Colonies, into the horrors of Civil War, seeming in many 
particulars to be but the renewal of a suspended conflict. 

By the result of both of these domestic struggles many who 
had in former peaceful times been held as valuable citizens, were 
impoverished and driven into exile ^ — in the former from the 

6 The following is a letter from John Cruger, Esq., Mayor of New York from 
1719 to 1744, and from 1757 to 1766, and Speaker of the Assembly of 1775. He 
was then a prisoner on parole at the residence of his brother-in law Peter Van 
Schaack, the celebrated lawyer, whose wife soon after died from want of proper med- 
ical treatment in New York, access to which the regulations of war precluded. 

KiNDERHOOK, April 12, I778. 

Sir : 

I have Rec'd your favor & am Extremely Sorry that any Impediment has arisen 
in the Way of my going to New York. When I Reed Genl Gjtes' permission 
Upon Condition of my Engaging to fulfil the Exchange he proposed, I wrote him 
I did not chuse to go Upon a condition which it might be out of my 



in the Revolution. 13 

varied successes, drawn from both of the contending factions — 
affording opportunity to each in turn, to develope the smaller 
characteristics of nature, in the uses of success as an opportunity 
for the harsh assertion of authority, in resorting to confiscation, 
exile and individual suffering, in the changes of property as well 
as of place. 

Now, if we can judge from history and observation, both 
Cavalier and Roundhead are looked back upon by their descend- 
ants and their successors with equal respect, and their actions 
as the result of conviction, with a common pride. The 
impressions of the past have been more readily forgotten, in the 
activity of the present by a large portion of a people, attached 
like our own to a government which has developed, in the ex- 
perience of past strife the elasticity of its institutions, and of a 
progressive energy in rebounding after a strain, to even a 
Stronger tension. 

One element of its population, many of the people of 
Ireland, from circumstances yet adhere to their old prej- 
udices, and still recall Cromwell's severity in his invasion, and 

power to perform. Upon which he wrote me as your Excellency Will Recollect 
from his Letter, that he looked to Sir Henry Clinton for the performance of Any 
Engagement I should make, and I have reason to think from What I then and have 
since heard that this matter was settled between these two Generals. Could I have 
foreseen that it was Possible that this wd have been prevented taking place, I Should 
I am sure have had no difficulty in Getting the Genls passport Upon which several 
have gone down, Even after he quitted Albany, Altho 1 cannot it Seems be so 
fortunate. Perhaps upon Considering this matter, Your Excellency will be of 
opinion that Sir Henry Clinton will perform what Genl Gates Relied Upon him for, 
however diffident your Excellency may be of Genl Jones Who is I believe an Inferior 
Officer to Sir Henry Clinton. Especially as I shall then go down Upon the Confi- 
dence between him and Genl Gates & not upon any promise of Genl Jones. If 
your Excellency still entertain doubts, I will be content to go down with one Servant 
only (Leaving my family and Effects,) upon Parole to return if an Exchange cannot 
be Effected. I sincerely Request of Your Excellency, so far as you consistently can, to 
take my situation into Consideration, and I hope when you Reflect on ye age and 
Infirmity of my sister and Self, & the great Inconveniency which we Labour Under 
here. You Will Readily fall upon some Means to Extricate Us Out of our Difficultys 



1 4 Tories or Loyalists 

King William's success at the Battle of the Boyne, with equal 
bitterness. They had never cheerfully transferred their adhesion 
from the house of Stewart to either the Prince of Orange or that 
of Hanover. Many of them, including those of the best ele- 
ment had been driven by that war and its results, into France and 
other countries, often to become from choice soldiers, in many 
cases still represented by their descendants, with the same 
courage which turned the current of the fight at Fontenoy, 
and made the command of the regiment Dillon, long hereditary. 
Others came to America, replacing the departed loyalists, soon 
exceeding them in numbers, and rapidly increasing as we know, 
until in many sections they form a very large element of popula- 
tion. Their hereditary prejudices and their natural tendency to 
politics, perhaps inspired by the consideration of their grievances, 
the apparent error of the government in not fostering their 
manufacturies, industries and universal education, have perhaps 
united to produce for generations political agitations and 

Which I shall be happy to Retaliate by Every means in my power, to procure the 
Enlargement of any family, which may be desirous of moving out of New York. 
I have the honour to be With great Esteem 

Yr Ex. Most Obed & 

Very humb. Servt 
His Ex. Gov. Clinton. John Cruger. 

Governor Clinton's Answer. 

POUGHKEEPSIE, April I 9, I 778. 

Sir : i_ j j 

I have received your letter of the 12th Instant & in Answer thereto, am reduced 
to the necessity of Informing you that I cannot consent to your going to New York 
in any other way than that of exchange. The conduct of Messrs. Wallace, Sher- 
brooke & several others who were indulged to go in on Parole & to return, or send out 
tizens, in exchange, has rendered the like indulgence to others altogether 
r At any rate the intercourse between the Country & City will be totally 



some ci 
improper 



prohibited for some Weeks to come as the Commanding Officer, were I ever so 
willing, will not suffer any Persons to pass the Posts below. I shall be always ready 

■ to grant you every Indulgence consistent with the Duty of my Office. 

I am Sir Your Most Obedt. Servt, 

John Cruger, Esq. (George Clinton.) 



in the Revolution. 15 

misunderstandings at home, and probably induced an immense 
emigration, who by becoming citizens, necessarily separate 
themselves politically from their country and have in the sea- 
board cities especially, largely acquired that control of which 
they were deprived in their old home, centuries ago. 

It is a singular paradox, attending the gigantic prosperity of 
the country, that while one large class of citizens neglect, in 
the excitement of business occupations, even the ordinary duty 
of electors, another often abandon the opportunities for solid 
prosperity and wealth, attracted by the glitter of authority and 
perhaps ephemeral salary, and in seeking office devote their 
lives to " politics," and their advancement to the control of its 
dispensers. 

While the majority of the people of Great Britain accepted 
the House of Hanover cheerfully, if coldly, they took no 
interest in the complications of the first two sovereigns, in 
protecting their birthplace and Principality on the continent. 
Its position involved them in the '^ Seven Years' War" — without 
eventual advantage, and imposed upon them a heavy indebted- 
ness, partially to meet which, in the reign of George III, the 
attempted taxation of his American colonies, also its seat, was 
resorted to, which afforded them their opportunity. 

The history prepared by a conquered enemy is generally 
little accepted by the victor, beyond its use in illustrating some 
strategic detail. Its statements of any motives, or of rights 
invaded, or injustice done, would be as indifferently received as 
he argument of a case after the jury had retired — a barren 
effort which is believed to have at times affected intellects. 
That of the English writers, as to the Revolutionary war has 
rarely been generally accepted or studied, in search. for even minor 
particulars, by those satisfied with results. In our own histories, 



1 6 Tories or Loyalists 

while doing justice to the general details of the origin and pro- 
gress of the conflict, little attention was naturally given to per- 
sonal conviction, or to apparent necessity, as influencing the 
action of any ally of the enemy, while resisting the success of 
a struggle for Independence. Tory and Hessian, have been 
rated with the Indian, and all considered the worst elements of 
a bad cause, best remembered as the perpetrators of those 
ravages of war, impressed more strongly, by tradition and early 
history, upon the communities where they occur, than any nobler 
action, and therefore more likely to survive. That they soon 
departed, leaving neither apologist nor vindicator, seems to afford 
a suflScient reason for some just consideration of their then^ 
position, a century later. 

We have realized some " modern instances " since, where 
prejudice has unduly obscured, or partiality unreasonably 
brightened, the records of the wrestlers in a world of action. 

The annexation of Texas — a Republic then recently 
carved out of the territory of a friendly power, while it slum- 
bered — may be recalled by some as having presented a ques- 
tion of such then apparently vast importance, as to have seemed 
for a time to shake the foundation of our own government. Strict 
constructionists of law, and those watchful of the integrity of our 
avowed national policy, entered into vehement protest against an 
act for which they could discover no authority, and its inevitable 
result, in a war with a weaker power, to acquire by force a terri- 
tory, then looked upon without coveting it, by a large portion of 
the people. The debates in Congress on the subject, will sur- 
vive as long as the government they affected by their results, as 
characterized by marked ability and vehemence, for there were 
surely many statesmen in Congress at that period. When the 
war was precipitated, all differences were speedily buried and the 



in the Revolution, 17 

Maxim " Our Country Right or Wrong," silenced dissent or 
opposition and carried brave men of both factions in concert to 
the field. 7 Many Americans residing in Mexican Territory, 
under such protection as it could afford to their property, 
naturally placed themselves under their national colors. 
We can conceive that if the Mexican forces had then been able 
to invade the United States, the action of her citizens residing 
within their borders and enjoying their protection would have 
been a subject for jealous scrutiny ! Their duty to the flag 
under which they were born, unless abandoned by a new alle- 
giance, could not be questioned, while its exercise against the 
government that liad protected them would have been considered 
as an act of aggravated hostility. 

In our Civil War the manhood of the country of an avail- 
able age largely buried political dissensions, and when the 
question was narrowed to that of the supremacy of the flag, 
hastened to the front. When such voluntary material for 
its maintenance seemed exhausted, the additional inducement 
of large bounties was added to the customary pay to stimulate 
patriotism, or compensate for the time diverted from personal 
enterprise. It was then noticed that the representation of 

7 The anxiety to obtain service in this war, and the enthusiasm which attended 
its progress, when once precipitated must be recalled by many. More troops were 
offered than could be used, and the Southern and Southwestern States, more 
sectionally interested in the acquisition of new territory, continually pressed the offer 
of additional regiments. Those. of New York, which succeeded in obtaining orders, 
did good service in Mexico and California, while others offered could find no 
place. The contributor recalls how, although opposed to the annexation from 
surrounding association, and scarcely qualified by age as an elector, happening to be, 
for the second time, aid de camp to a notable Governor of the old school, and thus a 
Colonel on the Peace Establishment, inspired by the sentiment of the moment, he 
committed that operation so painful to all soldiers, actual or implied, waived his 
rank and raised a company, in a regiment which was so denied the privilege of fameor 
the possibility of failure. The effort was an etfect of the electricity with which all 
were charged, impressing even a titular soldier with the value oi his sword, rather 
than of his rank. 



1 8 Tories or Loyalists 

other nationalities in our ranks was largely increased. In 
the rising of a government in its force to preserve its existence, 
the way was necessarily subordinated to the means, and all 
were acceptable. Even the Chinese, valueless as an elector, 
would have been welcome in the hour of danger, to fight for 
a nationality open to all others, as the home of liberty. It was 
noticeable also, that when hostilities finally ensued, many who 
had long excited by their persistent eloquence the people of 
both sections to seek for, to cherish, if not to magnify differences, 
until a perhaps inevitable conflict was precipitated, did not 
crowd into the ranks, or if in Congress, all follow the example 
of that gallant Senator, Edward D. Baker, a proto-martyr of that 
body in the conflict, who falling at the head of his regiment 
at Balls BluflF, while practically advancing his plea for the 
Union, made a more lasting impression than words addressed 
to applauding galleries, by men of either section fired by zeal, 
who failed to afterwards emphasize the depth of their convic- 
tions, by service in the field. 

Those who did this followed an old precedent, established 
by members of both houses of Parliament in the English Civil 
War, where, as an example, Lucius Cary, Viscount Falkland^ 

8 Clarendon in his " History of the Great Rebellion " thus records the virtues of 
one who might have been an agreeable and instructive associate, " he was a person of 
such prodigious parts of learning and knowledge, and of that inimitable sweetness 
and delight in conversation, and of so flowing and obliging a humanity and goodness 
to mankind, and of that primitive simplicity and integrity of life, that if there were 
no other brand upon the odious and accursed Civil War than that single loss, it 
must be most infamous to all posterity." He was deeply depressed by the compass 
which he foresaw in the conflict, frequently cried to himself " Peace, Peace," and 
doubting its speedy coming; having accompanied the King at Edgehill, Oxford and 
Gloucester, being his Secretary of State, he threw himself as a volunteer into the 
front rank of Lord Byron's regiment, at the battle of Newberry, and was killed by 
a musket ball. 

" Thus Falkland died the generous and the just," at least another martyr to 
honest convictions. 



in the Revolution, 19 

a conscientious patriot, and one of the first to rise in Parliament 
in opposition to grievances, was also one of the earliest to vol- 
untarily die in defence of his sovereign, when he considered 
that the claims for redress were pressed too far. Many members 
of our Continental Congress also displayed by their service in 
the field, their conviction that a statesman whether involuntary, 
hereditary or professional, does not lessen his official dignity, 
by contact in the ranks even with those who had not sympa- 
thized in the discussion^ until forced into the conflict by results. 

Gallant service in both the council and the field would appear 
to be unanswerable evidences of at least honest convictions.9 

The Trumpeter, in another fable, would appear to have been 
properly denied immunity, as a non-combatant, for the reason 
that he incited bloodshed by his noisy brass. It had already 

9 An example of' this disinterested appreciation of a double duty, may be cited in 
Lewis JVlorris, a Signer of the Declaration of Independence, a member of Congress, 
grandson of a Colonial Governor of New Jersey, in his turn the son of an English 
officer of Cromwell's army, who had made America his refuge at the Restoration — 
the proprietor of a Manor of some thousands of acres called Morrifania, in West- 
chester, New York, and an honored citizen, who, although like the Johnsons', with 
much to lose personally, for the prospect of a gain by a change of government, threw 
his fortunes into an opposite scale. His love to freedom,probably hereditary, early carried 
him into public life, and with his beautiful home desolated, his family scattered, his 
thousand of acres of woodland felled and the British ships lying within cannon shot 
of his mansion, he was, at the time this letter was written, sitting in Congress and 
commanding a disaffected Brigade, in the southern part of Westchester County, the 
most disloyal portion at a Tory State. It is taken from the original : 

Philadelphia, Septttnber 24, 1776. 
Sir : 

I had the honor to receive your Letter accompanying the Resolve of Congress re- 
lative to my return to resume the command of my Brigade, at a tinie when the 
State to which I belong is invaded, and particularly as 1 am honored with a military 
command, I esteem it my duty to account for my absence. Since my arrival at 
Philadelphia, the State of New York has had no more than a representative in 
Congress, and as the Gentlemen of the Committee of Indian Affairs were mostly out 
of Town, the whole of that necessary business has been devolved upon me. My 
family have been obliged to desert their home, and meeting with them in this f>lace, 

3 



20 Tories or Loyalists 

been discovered, that it was easier to excite than to allay a 
conflict, and that only the peacemaker was blessed. 

There is a middle course, which caution has often suggested 
to personal interest, in the consideration of all untried enter- 
prises ; that of uniting with neither party, while coquetting with, 
and appearing to entertain, the views of both. From any im- 
putation of such littleness, at least, Johnson and his Tory 
associates would appear to have been free, as the evidence of 
their offence was in their undisguised cooperation. 

When the French fleet, with Rochambeau's army, was 
groping its way in search of Newport and towards Yorktown, 
on the lOth of July, 1780, through Martha's Vineyard, and the 
fogs which yatchsmen so often deplore, an islander boarded the 
Conquerant, 74 — conveying Generals the Baron de Viomenel, 
Count de Custine, who soon after led the advanced troops to 

altogether unprcvided, I have been u}ider the necessity of delaying the time of my stay 
until I could fx them in some situation ivhere they could be accommodated. This distress 
of my Family on this occasion made it my particular duty to attend to them, and 
which I flatter myself will be justifiable upon every principle of justice. The situation 
of my Brigade I was convinced was well known to the Convention, I apprehended 
that not more than a Colonel's command was left in it, and ss such did not think my 
presence was so absolutely necessary. I have thought that the existence of such a 
Brigade, in which were so many disaffected persons, was dangerous to the cause as 
well as to my own life. But being desirous to participate in the virtuous opposition 
to the British Tyrant, 1 had determined as soon as possible to join Gen. Washington 
and contribute my assistance to him, prompted in the first instance by a Love of my 
Country, and in the next place the preservation of my property, being thoroughly 
convinced that unless we conquer I am ruined. Fowever in obedience to the 
command of Convention I shall prepare with all possible expedition to set out for 
Westchester, and will endeavor to execute any orders they may be pleased to give to 
the utmost of my ability. 

I have the honor to subscribe myself, Sir, Your obliged and Obed't Humble 
Servant, Lewis Morris. 

(To the President of the Provincial Congress of New York). 

He afterwards returned to service, was a Major General and had, as his fellovir 
officers, three of his sons. Of his own brothers, Staats Long continued in the 
British service, became a Lieutenant General. Richard was a Judge of Admiralty, 
and Gouverneur the well esteemed Diplomatist and Congressman. 



in the Revolution, 21 

the Peninsula and performed valuable service there, and many 
officers and men of those auxilliaries — and who was useful as 
a pilot bringing valuable information, as to the Americans 
still holding Rhode Island,'° "he was a good man" — says the 
Chief Commissary who was daily bottling up facts for our later 
refreshment — "and displayed intelligence. He was neither a 
Royalist.^ or Insurgent.^ but a friend of everybody., as he told us with 
much simplicity."'' As the arrival of this expected assistance 
was an occasion for the expression of pleasure, and as the struggle 
it was coming to aid in terminating had long given opportunity 
for the formation of an opinion, it seems clear that he was a 
Loyalist, and yet in a condition to avail himself of the rapidly 
approaching success, with all the privileges ot a patriot. 

But courage based upon even erroneous conviction may claim 
respect. A generous opponent after success in defeating an 
object which from principle he has opposed, is often the earliest 
reconciled, and a heart conscious of the duty of loyalty, most 
open to forgive an honest but mistaken conception. 

Thus, in later years, after time for comparison of events and 
reflection, such appreciation has even extended over the seas to 
the adherents of the Pretender, who lost their lives and estates 
in a hopeless effort to restore the unfortunate house of Stuart, 
to whom their fathers owed allegiance ; when realizing how that 
history has also in a way repeated itself in our own land, largely 
colonized by the exiles of both parties in England's civil wars, 
and how a similar sentiment inspired many good men, mis- 

'° Journal of Claude Blanchard, edited by Wm. Duane and Thos. Balch, Albany, 
1876. 

During the season of iS8i, they were said by the Port officials to be more con- 
tinuous than for sixteen years, and the whole eastern and the north-eastern coast 
resounded with the music of the fog horn, with little visible to the cruisers' eye. 



22 Ivories or Loyalists 

takenly as the result proved, to endeavor to sustain the exist- 
ing government ; and some incidentally to foUovi' or imitate such 
a leader as Sir John Johnson, in his effort to reclaim his inherit- 
ance by the same force that had been used in his eviction. His 
Scotch, Irish and German tenantry and his Indian allies, whose 
memory has come down to us as terrible as that of the " Black 
Douglas " with which babies of the Border were once hushed to 
sleep, were the same appliances long turned by his predecessor 
with general approval against the French. The barbarities 
attending his expedition, if greater than those recorded in all 
that partisan warfare, may, at this distance of time, be attributed 
to the bitter sentiment of divided neighborhood and broken 
friendship, the retaliation of the exile against him who retained 
or had acquired his home. 

In our recent struggle we learned again that many foreign 
soldiers voluntarily came as has been stated, and accepted service 
on either side, for glory or for pay, indifferent to the cause; and 
also that old neighbors were often the fiercest opponents when 
meeting in strife. 

If, in the light of that experience, there was one whose 
adhesion to the British Government in 1776 appears most 
readily accounted for, it would seem to be that of Sir John 
Johnson. His position as an officer in his King's service 
made it natural to a soldier ; the personal honor of knight- 
hood from the King's hand while in London, must have 
influenced his sympathy, aside from the hereditary sense of 
gratitude for the great bounties and trust conferred on his 

father. 

That father dying in 1774 escaped the responsibility which 
fell upon his son. It is unnecessary to fully recall the career 




an 







in the Revolution. 23 

of Sir William Johnson who was probably the most remarkable, 
if not the most distinguished, character in American colonial 
history. 

His coming as a youth from Ireland into the then wild 
Mohawk valley as the agent of his uncle. Admiral Sir Peter 
Warren, whose " great and veteran service " to this State, was 
rewarded in part with the means to secure an estate of 15,000 
acres named " Warren's Bush " and afterwards by the gift from 
the city of New York of a suburban estate — called Chelsea, and 
now embedded in its limits — especially for his service in the 
capture of Louisburg ;" his succession from a pioneer planter 
and country store keeper to the control of the Six Nations of 
Indians, once the most powerful race on the Northern Amer- 
ican Continent, who were likened to the Romans from the 
extent of their invasions from their northern home, west to the 
Falls of the Ohio, and south to the waters of Carolina. 

"■ The capture of Louisburg, the key to Canada, skillfully fortified by a pupil of 
Vau')an, garrisoned by regular French troops, and also protected by vessels of war, 
by 6,000 Provincials, commanded by "Mr. Pepperel a trader of P'scataqua," as colonel 
of the largest regiment, was a subject of worldwide wonder at the time, and 
may still be considered as one of the great military achievements on this continent. 
Its conception was due to the indefatigable Governor Shirley. 

The Following Commission given by Governor Shirley, when commanding all 
the Forces in North Arrerica, and signed by Lord Stirling, then Mr. Alexander, a 
young gentleman of fortune, when acquiring as an amateur the military knowledge 
which he supplemented by his gallantry, at the Battle of Long Island and in other 
service, showj the formality with which Indians were regularly commissioned, and 
educated in the w.irfare then waging against the French, subsequently turned against 
the Colonists whom they were then protecting. While the me of the Indians was 
complained of by civilized opponents in both cases, their employment had become 
habitual. 

By His Excellency, Major General Shirley, Commander-in Chief of all 
HIS Majesty's Forces in North America, 

To Tamvcnoe, Greeting : 

By Virtue of the Power and Authority to me Granted by His Majesty and reposing 
especial Trust and Confidence in your FaithfulnesSy Attachment and Loyalty to His 
most sacred Majesty, King George the Second. I do appoint you, the said Tawenoe, 



24- Tories or Loyalists 

They might then become the balance of power between the 
English and French colonies, and are now, from the loss of such 
civilizing authority mainly extinct, enjoying in happier hunt- 
ing grounds, freedom from the inevitable progress of the white 
man, before which they steadily pass away, making room for 
advancing cultivation. 

Soon, his acquisition of military and civil power, of influence 
and estate, until he had become a viceroy in authority, with a 
princely personal domain, showed a rapid appreciation of his new 
surroundings. His intimate knowledge of the character of the 
Indians, his justice and wisdom in their control, their devotion 
to him, and his adaptation to their customs and language ; his 
defence of the French border and his expeditions into their 
dominions, until dying a Baronet, a Major General, and Super- 
intendent of Indian affairs, are matters that should be familiar to 
every reader. 

His home, "Johnson Hall," was the theatre of much 
romantic incident connected with colonial history, and visited 
at intervals by most of the distinguished men on the 

to be Lieutenant of Indians employed in the present Expedition for removing the 
French Encroachments at Niagara, and elsewhere on Lake Ontario, and you are 
faithfully to discharge the Duty of a Lieutenant of the Indians aforesaid. 

Given under my Hand and Seal at Arms, at the Camp at Qswego, on Lake 
Ontario, the first day of September, 1755. W. Shirley. 

By His Excellency's Command, 

Wm. Alexander, &f j;."' 

Sir William Pepperel died a baronet, and his successor living to be deprived, his 
estate also passed into exile. It may be proper to mention, as one of the historical 
doubts which confuse the reader, that Dr. Dwight has claimed for General Lyman, 
the second in command, the principal credit for the defeat of Baron Dieskau near 
Lake George, by Sir William Johnson (Appendix) with the New England, New York 
and New Jersey Provincials, which aided to relieve the alarm created by Gen. Brad- 
dock's disaster, with another division of the army. There was great jealousy at this time 
between the New England and New York Provincial Troops. It was on such 
evidences of their skill in arms, that the self reliance of the Colonists in the com- 
ing struggle was founded. 














f^ 



;<: 



/. 



^«F 






FROM THE ORIfilNAl. IN THE COLLECTION Or T,a m 



in the Revolution. 25 

continent. Their letters addressed to him on various affairs of 
state, with replies showing condensation of varied intelligence, 
conveyed in the graceful penmanship of a ready writer, are still 
preserved — some in the collection referred to — attesting a hfe 
of labor in the public service. 

In this however, he found opportunity to attend to many 
personal duties, incident to his position and capacity. Isolated, 
and only restricted by the orders of the Government, which 
from better local appreciation of necessities, he alone, as its 
agent, had ventured to disregard; with an increasing neighbor- 
hood of many nationalities, English, Scotch, Irish, German 
and Hollander, as compatriots or tenantry, appealing to him 
for counsel in every relation of life, from the cradle to the 
grave, he advised and protected the living, and was burthened 
with trusts by the dead,'^ cheerfully fulfilling his duties to the 
lowly as a bountiful benefactor, and hospitably entertaining them 
with the great, who resorted to the hall, when amusing their 
leisure time with hardy sports and athletic games. He appears 
to have afforded an example to those charged with the control 
■of the destinies of aggregates of men. 

« The accompanying document appears worthy of reproduction, as a pen sketch 
affording a glimpse of this early backwoods life. As rough in autographic execution 
as its surroundings, it chances to place on one paper the names, and to show the meet- 
ing, of some historical celebrities of border life, friends soon to be divided in strife. 
The two Johnsons, General Nicholas "Herckmer," as he boldly but roughly writes 
himself,— in the year in which he was erecting the spacious brick mansion called his 
"Castle", which survives him near Little Falls,— destined afterwards to sit on the 
saddle of his dead horse, reclining against a tree, smoking his pipe, and issuing his 
orders, when mortally wounded in the battle of Oriskany, by the Tories and Indians 
of St. Leger and Sir John. Colonel Peter Schuyler, for a time acting as Colonial 
Governor of New York, called " Quider" by the Mohawks, whom he had led 
successfully against the French, and whom they trusted and loved, and Abraham 
Yates, Jun., subsequently an early Senator, both of the last at times Mayors_ of the 
important border city of Albany. With these are others, not unknown in that 
local history, although making as feeble impression on their times as on the paper, 
yet as necessary as are the minor connecting links in Genealogy. 



26 Tories or Loyalists 

He devoted much attention also, to the erection of 
churches and schools — even selecting with his intimate knowl- 
edge of the Mohawk dialect, the hymns to be sung — and to the 
education '3 and spiritual welfare of his savage neighbors, in his 
relations with whom there was much to recall the habits of the 
Patriarchs, and to account for this special interest in their 
progress which was probably remembered in the fidelity of four 
of the tribes, the Onondagas, Cayugas, Senecas and Mohawks, 
to his son, while the Oneidas alone supported the Americans, 
after vigorous efforts had been made to secure them all. 

One of the latest objects of his attention was the publication 
of a new edition of the '' Book of Common Prayer," to supply 
the place of the " Mohawk Prayer Book " printed in 1715, on 

'3 From Rev. Eleazer Wheelock, founder and President of Dartmouth College, 
and celebrated for his success and usefulness in his extended labors to educate aiid 
civilize the Indians. Amongst his pupils was Joseph Brant. \ 

Dartmouth College, in New Hampshire, Feh. i-j, ^jyi, 
Hon. Sir : 

The bearers, Basteen and Lewis, Indians of the Tribe of Lorett, have been several 
months at my school, and have from the first appeared to have an uncommon thirst 
for Learning, have been diligent at their studies and have made good Proficiency for 
the Time therein. They appear to be rational, manly, spirited, courteous, graceful 
and obliging far beyond what I have found common to Indians, and I have observed 
no undue appetite in them for Strong Drink. They have often expressed a desire to 
see your Honor since they have lived with me, and now at their Desire I have con- 
tented to their making you this Visit. 

I esteem them the most promising young Indians I have ever seen, and the most 
likely to answer the great and good ends of an Education, and I hope their going 
among their brethren in your parts will have no bad influence to predjudice or 
distemper their minds. I have advised them to return as soon as they can after they have 
suitably expressed their duty and respect to you, as I should be sorry they should lose 
more time from their Studies than shall be needful and also as they will likely have 
occasion to take several other Journeys soon after their return. I wish your Honor 
the Divine Presence, Direction and Blessing in the important Business Providence has 
assigned you in Life and beg leave to assure you that 1 am with much Esteem and 
Respect, 

Your Honor's most obedient and very humble servant, 

Eleazer Wheelock. 

Sir Wm. Johnson, Baronet. 



in the Revolution, 27 

Bradford's celebrated Press, even then unobtainable and now of 
great value as. one of the rarest of American books. 

Although his treaties with them showed the concession of 
great grants of unoccupied territory to the King's domain, he 
protected them in their occupancies and reserved rights with 
a jealous care, which would afford a model for later " Indian 
Agencies." He carried into effect the policy which Governor 
Dongan had foreshadowed, of keeping the control of the Indians 
on British soil and protecting them from the zealous Missionary 
efforts of their French neighbors, to consolidate them with 
their own tribes. 

Like Lord Chatham, he died in harness, devoting his last 
hours to duty. The progress of prospecting for locations on 
Indian lands was already active in 1774. Captain Michael 
Cresap and Mr. Greathead, had by attendant ravages in the 
valley of the Ohio, on lands protected by Treaty obligations, 
aroused Logan and other chiefs, friendly to the whites. It 
was the old story, with which we have been familiar from youth, 
being repeated. The entire Indian race on the continent 
sympathized, the Six Nations were preparing to take arms, 
even Johnson trembled at the prospect. He invited them 
to a Great Council, and appealed to their old relations as a 
guarantee for justice. Sick, when he entered the council, he 
vehemently addressed them, as was his custom, and died before 
the session was completed — on the eleventh of July, 1774, 
in his sixtieth year ; but his parting words carried their wonted 
influence, and peace was preserved. 

He combined some of the characteristics of Nestor with 
those of Ulysses, and surely presents in his administration of his 
public trust and mainly in his private life, an example to those 
4 



28 Tories or Loyalists 

charged with large duties and responsibilities. In the plentitude 
of his evidences of his master's favor and the pressing variety 
of his occupations, it is doubtful whether in the growing disfavor 
.for the taxes on stamps or tea, he found time even to consider 
the reasons for a change of government, or felt that a seat in 
Parliament would have increased his own importance or rep- 
resentative control.''* 

It is no reflection upon the purity of the motives, or the 
wisdom of the action of the fathers of our country that such 
cases of those thus personally impressed with other views, should 
have existed, but it is merely another instance of the sometimes 
honest diversity of opinion and policy which has made the 
world a battle field. 

It may be assumed that then as now, men were governed 
by individuality and subordinated all to the duty of loyalty, 
combined in such cases with a sense of interest ; and one can 
easily see how possessing all they could hope for, both father 
•and son struggled to retain it, as would now the holder of a 
similar valuable estate, franchise, or monopoly, against legislative 
absorbtion, opposing opinion, or even suggested amendment. 

We see, even in the peaceful walks of life, one man of other- 
wise noble character, loose self control in asserting a grievance 
or supporting a right against another, where both are honest, 
and one, inevitably wrong. Such material, when aggregated 
even for social purposes, will at times divide in sentiment, and 
struggle in a ballot, to decide what is humane or right or what 
is regular, and by the vote of the majority, produce a result 
in suppressing without altering a deeply seated conviction. 

'4 It does not appear that he ever revisited England, as was asserted, but it may be 
recalled that he was the first white man — borne bv the Indians on a litter — who 
resorted to the " Saratoga Springs" for medicinal relief. 



in the Revolution. 29 

Such differences are apparently but miniature representations 
of the elements aggregated in civil war. A reference to a disin- 
terested party has often remedied the one as a mediation may 
avoid the other. 

John Bright, that life long advocate of peace, who has lived 
through many wars, has recently presented a remedy against 
their recurrence. " The policy and aspect of our country 
and of the world will be changed, if the demon war is confined 
to the cases in which there seems to Christian and rational 
men no escape from the miseries it inflicts on mankind." 
This seems a glittering generality only, until it can be dis- 
covered how the passion and perhaps the ignorance by which it 
is generally incited can be induced — best before anv use of 
violence — to submit to such proper arbitration, and then who 
would be admitted to be " rational men " by any usual method 
of selection. 

At least the position of those who sustained the existing govern- 
ment at the Revolution would not appear to have been open to 
any such solution. A large body of the people had finally 
settled upon a new form, to which all must submit, without 
reference to former complication, interest, or ties. There was 
no intermediate course, nor opportunity to temporize, espe- 
cially for one prominent from position. 

The " Tory " then fought for his sovereign and the existing 
laws, often after years of resistance to their exactions in every 
appeal but that of arms, as distasteful then as now. The con- 
servative element had favored to the last, endurance to con- 
test, of which property and business were to bear the cost. 
Many, even of the leading patriots of the Revolution during its 
progress gave their testimony, that they did not at its outset con- 
template separiition, but only to urge concession by the threat 



30 'Tories or Loyalists 

supported by force ; some of them favored mutual conciliation 
to the end, most prayed for peace. 

We have been educated to consider the action of those who 
were satisfied with the existing government in 1776, as well as 
that of those who had realized and sought for peaceful redress 
from grievances,and when they culminated in war adhered to their 
old flag, indiscriminately, as absolutely indefensible ; to apply 
to all of them the epithet "Tory," as equivalent to " Traitor," 
and to forget that the even worse detested " Hessian " was only 
an involuntary German soldier in jackboots and bearded,, then 
unusual in America, whose sword was again sold under treaty 
obligations, by his Hereditary Prince to a kinsman, King George 
III, in that war. We have not cared to recognize his hostility 
to us as compulsory, his presence that of the involuntary victim 
of an obnoxious custom in the old World, and that he was of 
the same race — and if an officer, of its educated and then 
privileged class — famed from the period of Charlemagne in the 
battle fields of the world, for their achievements, among the 
more recent of which we can now recall their instrumentality — 
including the death of two Princes of Brunswick — in the earlier 
conflicts, in the overthrow of two Emperors of the Bonaparte 
dynasty, and its suppression. 

The Tory was not allowed to remain after the Revolution 
had succeeded, to submit to the result of what he had from 
habit and education rejected, when pressed upon him by arms. 

It would seem to be improper, after the expiration of a cen- 
tury, to question the action of the brave men — carefully selected 
to represent the popular sentiment, and clearly influenced 
by more than usual intelligence — as to their policy in the 
smallest detail, in securing our national existence, or to believe 
that they could have acted in this important particular, without 



in the Revolution, 



31 



a better knowledge than we can even yet appreciate, of their 
position and of their necessities. 

We know that our country was exhausted in men and means 
when the contest ended, 'S that the British lion had retreated 

'S The following copied from a signed duplicate original, shows the necessity of the 
government, the relative ability of the States, and the changes in their sub- 
sequent progress. 

By the United States, in Congress assembled. 

September 4, 1782. 

On the report of a General Committee, consisting of a member from each state, 

Resol-ved, That one million two hundred thousand dollars has been quotaed on the 
States as absolutely and immediately necessary for payment of the interest on the 
public debt, and that it be recommended to the Legislatures of the respective States, 
to lay such taxes as shall appear to them most proper and effectual for immediately 
raising their quota of the above sum. 

Resol'ved, That the money so raised in each State, shall be applied towards paying 
the interest due on certificates issued from the loan office of each State, and other 
liquidated debts of the United States contracted therein, before any part thereof shall 
be paid into the public treasury. 

Ordered, That the foregoing Resolutions be referred to the Grand Committee, to 
assess and report the quota of each State. 

Sept. 10, 1782. 
On the report of the Grand Committee : 

Resol'ved, That $1,200,000 to be raised for the payment of the interest of the 
domestic debt of the United States, be appropriated to the several States, according 
to the following quotas, viz : 



New Hampshire, 
Massachusetts, 
Rhode Island, 
Connecticut, 
New York, 
New Jeisey, 
Pennsylvania, 
Delaware, 
Maryland, 
Virginia. 
North Carolina, 
South Carolina, 
Georgia, 



$48,000 

192,000 

28,800 

133,200 

54,000 

66,000 

180,000 

16,800 

132,000 

174,000 

88,800 

72,000 

14,400 



(Signed), 



$1,200,000 

Chas. Thompson, 

Secretary. 



32 Ivories or Loyalists 

grimly, still holding his Canadian territory as a lair, which could 
be used after the repose he also needed, as a base for the concen- 
tration of another effort, perhaps including the Loyalists and 
exchanged Hessian prisoners. That the private contributions 
made in England to aid the government, after the capture of 
Burgoyne, might be renewed and concert increased, after the 
surrender of Cornwallis, inspired by national chagrin. They 
perhaps felt that a Preliminary Peace wrung from a mortified 
enemy, was really a truce, depending on England's adjustment 
of her difficulties with France. That the forces of that ally, 
had hurried the attack upon Yorktown, to seek new laurels in 
the West Indies, and might never return, and that even Defin- 
itive Treaties had often been broken. 

Even after that Peace, they probably doubted its continuance 
— as was justified by the war of i8i2** — and from these 
considerations, looked upon the continued presence of the Tory 
element as likely to prove a lasting danger. 

A reference to " Sabine's Loyalists" will readily show, in the 
records of many of them in the Colonial and Revolutionary wars, 
that they were largely men of military experience'^ and the ques- 
ts In his "Campaigns of the War of 1812 and 15," recently published, General 
CuUum — who will be remembered by posterity for his life labor in recording the 
military records of all of the graduates of the military academy — throws much light 
on a dark subject. Intending to do justice to the officers of his own — the Engineer 
corps, he has apparently afforded the best account of the strategic failure of a war 
gallantly fought in'the field, but so disgracefully managed in the Bureau, as to leave 
an impression, in many competent minds, that it was intended to be a failure, to 
avoid the annexation of Canada, then by reason of the scarcity of British Troops 
and other circumstances apparently possible. 

»7 The '* Letters from the Marquis de Montcalm, Governor General of Canada, 
&c.," published by Almon, in London, in 1777, in the heat of the controversy — 
and at once declared, even in Parliament, to contain predictions manufactured after 
the results were verified — are still a subject of discussed authenticity, although 
mainly settled by recent developments by Francis Parkman and others, to have been 
simulated. At least they appear to contain a valuable cotemporary view of the 
condition of the then Colonies, the material of their population, and the probability 
of their speedily turning their arms against their mother country, when the danger 
of the French as a hostile neighbor was removed. 



in the Revolution. 33 

tion for the victors to pass upon, was whether a cordial acceptance 
of the result of their recent overthrow could be relied upon, 
and a new allegiance could divest them of their old attachment 
or entirely subordinate them to the impressions and duties, 
necessary to reliable citizenship. 

It has been claimed, that as they included in their number 
many large holders of property, and that its forfeiture — on 
which new fortunes were speedily founded — the release of 
debts and arrears before the war, to, and the cancelling of 
contracts with them, were also used as influences against an 
amnesty on even severe conditions,'^ such as had usually then 
been extended to the Indians, after their conquest, by most of 
the colonies. 

It was said by Addison, that " a man of merit in a different 
principle, is like an object seen in two different mediums, that 
appears crooked and broken, however straight and entire it may 
be in itself. For this reason there is scarcely a person of figure 
in England, who does not go by two contrary characters, as 
opposite to one another as light and darkness." 

'8 The severity of an indiscriminate confiscation was early recognized. In the 
preliminary Treaty of Peace, formulated at Versailles on the 20th of January, 1783, 
negotiated by Adams, Franklin, Jay and Henry Laurens, on the part of the United 
States — all illustrious citizens and principally foreign ministers — the only represent- 
ative of Great Biitain was Richard Oswald, a merchant of London, selected alone 
to represent her, without the ceremony attending happier negotiations and 
probably with a view to his acceptability to those he was to meet, as having 
lately bailed INIr. Laurens from the Tower when captured at sea, on his way to his 
Mission at the Hague. By that Treaty, condensed in nine biief stipulations, in 
Article v, "It is agreed that the Congress shall earnestly recommend it to the Legis- 
latures of the respective States, to provide for the restitution of all estates, rights and 
properties of persons resident in districts, in the possession of his Majesty's arms, and 
who have not borne arms against the said United States. And that persons, of any 
Other description, shall have free liberty to go into any part or parts of any of the Thir- 
teen United States, and therein to remain twelve months unmolested in their endeavors 
to obtain the restitution of each ot their estates, rights and propeities, as may have 
been confiscated j and that Congress shall also earnestly recommend to the several states 



34 Ivories or Loyalists 

It may be noticed that the persons here incidentally alluded to, 
may be mostly classed as persons of figure at the period and 
that Addison's impression was as applicable to the colonies as 
to the mother country. The customs of the one had been 
early introduced into the other, in the habits of life, and the 
adoption of many of the ideas and principles which governed at 
home. 

The acquisition of land has been as we know, from the 
earliest period one of the most marked instincts of man. None 
knew better than the settlers the traditional influence attending 
land secured by entail, as the basis of the perpetuation of families 
at home, and many younger sons and connections of such 
privileged owners were then amongst the first comers. Nor 
were they slow after their arrival in seeking for similar endow- 
ments. A vast area of readily productive land, forests, fisheries 
and mines, lay open to new colonists ; and facile governors, sent 
generally by favor, to better their estates — at least before dis- 
sensions demanded more efficient selections — were ready to 
promote grants of crown lands, and even manors with some 

a reconsideration and revision of the acts and laws regarding tiie premises, so as to 
render the said laws or acts perfectly consistent, not only with justice and equity, but 
with the spirit of conciliation, which on the return of the blessings of peace should 
universally prevail. And that Congress shall also earnestly recommend to the 
several States, that the estates, rights and properties of such last mentioned persons, 
shall be restored to them, they refunding to any persons who may be now in posses- 
sion, the bona fida price (where any has been given) which such persons may have 
paid on purchasing any of said lands or properties, since the confiscation. .'Vnd it is 
agreed, That all persons who have any interest in confiscated lands, either by debts, 
marriage settlements, or otherwise, shall meet with no legal impediment in the 
prosecution of their just rights." It was also agreed by Article vi, " That there shall 
be no future confiscations made, nor any prosecutions commenced against any person 
or persons for, or by reason of the part which he or they may have taken in the 
present war, and that no person shall, on that account, suffer any future loss or 
damage, either in his person, liberty or property, and that those who may be in 
confinement on such charge at the time of the ratification of the Treaty in America, 
shall be immediately set at liberty, and the prosecution so commenced be discontinued." 



in the Revolution. 35 

feudal privileges, induced by the eking out of a small salary by 
the considerable fees attending the entries, and often, — as 
existing written evidence proves — by a concealed interest with 
the grantee. To the foundation of such granted or purchased 
estates followed their division and use by tenants, or distribu- 
tion by sale. There were many nionopolies, similarly procured, 
soon also available as sources of wealth and as the crops and 
productions of the land, the mines, the timber, the naval stores, 
and the fisheries increased, and their development and control 
by merchants and shippers accumulated wealth, there followed 
naturally the introduction of every luxury and appliance, custom 
and habit of life, used by the privileged class in the mother 
country. 

The military and civil service brought out many cadets 
of English families, to find a permanent home by settlement 
or marriage. As England was politically an aristocracy, 
the colonies as a part of it, imitated its habits and fostered its 
restrictions. It has been claimed that with many who had 
acquired the convexity of affluence, and aspired to position, the 
exclusion from the higher offices, and the precedence on a state 
occasion, accorded to some stripling subaltern in a crimson coat, 
was a grievance harder to be borne than taxation. With pros- 
perity and wealth came the desire for education, and that culti- 
vation which should confer on their children some of the ad- 
vantages which they had seen accorded, to the scions of those 
privileged families at home. 

The schools of Eton and Harrow, and the Universities of 
Oxford and Cambridge, were filled with young Americans, who, 
while studying the humanities, were naturally comparing the 
5 



36 Tones or Loyalists 

political privileges which surrounded them, with those of their 
home. 

Those in London, during the period of the dissensions referred 
to, watched the progress of events in the galleries of Parliament 
and studied statesmanship there, often with their profession in 
the purlieus of the Temple and the Inns of Court, both indis- 
pensible in the coming events in that distant home. Probably 
in their social intercourse they felt the sense of inferiority as 
colonists, impressed upon them by the home- born young Britons, 
ever conscious of national and often of personal superiority — 
with whom they were associated, and already dreamed of political 
and social equality. '9 

Their home constituency, combining a large element of 
veterans taught to wield arms in the border wars, conscious 
of their power ; and of those devoted to the pursuits of 
peace, conceded in the selection for such offices as were 
left to their choice, the claims of superior education and larger 
opportunity for the study of public affairs ; for in those days, 
the place sought the man as generally as in the present, men seek 
the place. As an example, Edward Rutledge, Thomas Hay- 
ward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., and Arthur Middleton, all early 
movers for redress from grievances, members from South Car- 
olina of the early Congresses, and its Signers of the Declaration, 

'9 An amusing instance of the social line then drawn, is given by Col. Stone. 
When William, an half breed — suppo;ed to be Sir William's boy, and an associate 
of young Brant at Dr. Wheelock's school, was directed by his instructor's son to 
saddle a horse, he refused, saying he ivas not a Gentleman. When asked to define 
what a gentleman was, he replied, " a person who keeps race horses and drinks 
Madeira wine, and that is what neither you nor your father do." It is not probable 
that this impression originated with the boy, but it suggests whether the keeping of 
too many race horses, and the drinking of too much Madeira, may not have been 
one of the causes of' the distinction he describes finding its decadence in the progress 
of events and the development of new elements of citizenship, rapidly dividing 
property and power with these earlier comers. 



in the Revolution. 37 

were, with Charles Coatesworth Pinckney, John Laurens and 
many others early in the field from that, and a large number 
who served in both from other Colonies — recently educated 
in England. 

The Congress that declared the country free, which was 
probably as representative of the ability of the American people 
as any that succeeded it, was, according to the custom of the 
day, composed of such "men of figure" in the colonies as the 
people at the time, considered best suited to protect their common 
interest. The Clergy, Lawyers, Doctors, Judges, Magistrates, 
Planters. and prosperous Merchants and Manufacturers were 
mainly its material ; there was an entire absence of those who 
devoted themselves to politics or agitation professionally. 

Perhaps the difference of sentiment, which soon divided the 
people in arms, may be illustrated by hastily referring to the 
career of one member of that celebrated body, who, while 
occupying in many particulars the same position as the John- 
sons, was overwhelmed and mainly forgotten in the ruin he 
brought upon himself, in the honest assertion of antipodal con- 
victions. 

Richard Stockton, of New Jersey, would appear to have 
been symmetrically, in every relation, such a " person of 
figure." Born at Princeton, in 1730, on the extended estate of 
his fathers, carefully educated as his position justified, and his 
natural abilities made easy, he graduated at Nassau Hall, in 
1748, under the tutelage of President Burr. When fitted bv 
professional training, he readily asserted his position, as one of 
the ablest of a distinguished bar. The cultivation of his mind, 
is said to have kept pace with that of a graceful and attractive 
person, physically fitted for endurance and superiority in all 



38 Tories or Loyalists 

manly enterprises. While doing the honors of his stately home, 
with a broad hospitality and benevolence, aided by a wife to 
whom he was devoted, he had adorned it with many objects 
of interest, including one of the finest libraries in the colonies. 
He combined an interest in all that affected the public, with 
an appreciation of every social pleasure, uniting in the gayeties 
of the little Viceregal Court of his Governor, Sir William 
Franklin,^° while already considering the grievances charged 
against his delegated action. He is claimed by his honorable 
character, and sympathetic manners, to have earned the ap- 
preciation of all. Devoting his leisure to the improvement of 
his mind, body and estate, on the latter he bred the choicest 
horses and cattle, he was celebrated for his mount as well 
as for his seat, for his skill as a marksman, and in such 

20 Governor Franklin was a protege of Lord Bute, by whose influence and that of 
his father — when courted by the administration — he was created Governor of New 
Jersey without any marked service above that of a captain in the French War. 
On his release he returned to Europe. His more memorable father who could con- 
trol lightning failed in influencing the loyalty of his son. 

In many particulars there was a similarity between the position and treatment of 
Governor Franklin and Sir John Johnson in this year. The following letter is 
copied from the original and shows the action of Congress. 

Philadelphia, June 2.4, 1776. 
Gentlemen : Your Favor respecting the proper measures to be taken with your 
late Governor, William Franklyn, Esq., came to Hand on Saturday the 11A inst. 
But as the Congress did not sit on that Day I could not lay it before them till 
Monday. 1 now do myself the Honour of enclosing to you the Resolve of Congress 
which they have this day passed with Regard to the Treatment of him. You will 
therefore perceive the Congress have directed him to be sent to Connecticut under a 
guard. I shall write to Gov. Trumbull to treat him as a Prisoner should he refuse 
to give his Parole in Writing. 

I have the Honour to be Gentlemen your most 

obed't and very humble serv't. 

John Hancock, 

Presid't. 

The other resolves herewith transmitted, are of such a Nature that no arguments 
are necessary to enforce them. You will be pleased to attend to them as soon as 
■possible. 

HotCble Con-vention of Neiv yersey. 



in the Revolution. 39 

athletic sports as are now supplemented by polo, lawn tennis, 
boating and ball matches, in which pleasure is realized 
through exertion. Such pursuits and pastimes of his lesser 
existence, were with him only the oil applied to the machinery 
of an earnest life ! 

In 1766, he "made his tour," as was customary then as 
now, spending two years in England, cultivating the ac- 
quaintance of public men to whom his access was easy, 
obtaining an audience by the young King, who graciously 
received him, and communing with some leaders, with 
whom he was destined to hold early intercourse, and to whom 
he, even then, probably imparted his growing apprehensions. 
In an unpublished letter, written in London in that year to his 
wife — one of the few relics of his then impending ruin, which 
survive in the hands of his family, and which Dr. Emmet 
thoughtfully directed to be fac-similed — he says, ''I have had 
a perfect state of health since I left you, blessed be God 
Almighty, and let me tell you that all the Elegance and 
Grandeur I have yet seen in these Kingdoms, in different 
families where I have been received, serves but to increase the 
pleasure I have for some years enjoyed in my Domestick con- 
nections. I see not a sensible, obliging, tender wife, but the 
Image of my dear Emelia, is full in view. I see not a haughty 
ignorant imperious dame, but I rejoice that the partner of my 
life is so much her opposite. But why need I talk so gallantly ? 
You knew me long ago, as well as you would should I write a 
volume on this endearing topic." 

The fitness of a man so constituted and prepared for 
public usefulness, was not then long overlooked. Returning 
in 1768, he was named for a seat in the Council of the colony — 



40 Tories or Loyalists 

at the time an honored place, and, in 1774, elevated to the 
Supreme Bench, acquitting himself with credit in each position. 
When he saw the political clouds which he had carefully 
watched, about to break, he had prepared himself by study of 
precedents, and communion with wise men, for the result, and 
made every effort to avert it. The annexed appeal, copied 
from the original draft — written with a firm and graceful 
chirography, but in ink as faded by time as any general memory 
of his service — expressing the result of such conclusion in 
dignified and manly terms, and showing by its impersonal form, 
the writer's appreciation of the etiquette, which prevented a 
direct interference with public affairs beyond his control — 
was submitted to the minister without concealment of author- 
ship or the avoidance of responsibility, by the hand of a 
friend." 

*' An expedient for the Settlement or the American Disputes humbly sub- 
mitted (" offered" erased ) to the consideration of his Majesty's Ministers, by an 
American. 



The State of American Affairs is so badly alarming at this time, that any real friend 
to the British Empire, ought to suggest every probable expedient that occurs to him, 
for the accommodation of the unhappy disputes between Great Britain and the 
Colonies — to give the following suggestions their due weight, it must be premised — 
1st. That the several North American Colonies, from New Hampshire to South 
Carolina inclusive, arc a^/« ro furnish ^00,000 fighting men ; who are in general as 
fit for service as the English Militia, and many of them much more so, having been 
in active service in the last war. 2nd. That the great body of the people of these 
several Colonies are now ( even to the astonishment of many Colonists themselves ) 
perfectly united in a determinate opposition to the authority of the British Parliament as to 
all internal Taxation. 3d. That there is not the least remaining doubt, if the 
British Government should proceed to put the late Acts of Parliament, respecting 
the Massachusetts Bay (or any other Acts which involve the Idea of an absolute 
uncontrollable power in the British Parliament over the Colonies) ; into execution, by 
force, but that the said Colonies loould unite by attempting to repel, f°'''^' ^V force. To 
which may be added, what is as well or perhaps better known in Great Britain than in 
America, to wit : 4th. That the certain consequences of this unnatural war will be 
dreadful to both Great Britain and America, and the probable effects thereof may be 
fatal to the whole British Empire. Matters standing thus and the three first proposi- 
tions above premised being founded upon the most indubitable facts (of which the 
writer of this from his general acquaintance with America, is perhaps as competent a 



in the Revolution. 4.1 

Such remonstrances, made in and out of Parliament by the 
friends of America, desirous of preserving with honor its early 
institutions, failed to attract attention, and the storm of oppo- 
sition to them finally burst. Stockton had already selected his 
course and indifferent to office, personal exemption, or private 

judge as any man whatever), it is humbly proposed to his Majesty's Ministers whether 
it would not be proper, ist. That a royal Instruction be immediately obtained and 
jcnt over to the several Governors of the North American Colonies requesting them 
forthwith to recommend it to their several Assemblies to pass, and to give their own 
assent to an Act which may be passed by the Legislatures of several Provinces, 
comprising certain Commissioners therein to be named to repair to England, with 
power to confer with his Majesty's Ministers, or with Commissioners to be appointed 
by Parliament, respecting the grand points in dispute between Great Britain and 
America, and finally to determine thereupon. and. That to prevent all disputes in 
future, the said American Commissioners be also empowered to confer and agree with 
the British Commissioners respecting the future Go-vemment and regulation of the 
Colonies, either by framing one general system of Government for all the Colonies 
on the Continent similar to the British, or by making some material alteration in 
the present mode of Provincial Government. Jn either of which systems, some 
effectual provision may be madeyor the adequate support of the American Go'vernment 
by the Americans themseliies, and also for the payment of all such sums of money as 
may become due from America to Great Britain for the assistance of her Fleets and 
Army. These determinations of the said Commissioners to be subjected nevertheless, 
to such alteration as the wisdom of his Majesty and his Parliament of Great Britain 
may make therein, and as shall be agreed to by the several Provincial Legislatures. 
3d. That upon such instructions being given to the several Governors, his Majesty to 
be advised in his royal clemency, to recommend it to his Parliament to suspend the 
operation of the Boston Port Acts, while the determination of the said Commissioners 
shnuld be had. The author of the above hints offers them with all humility, and 
with great diffidence of his own ability on so great and national a question. But some 
expedient must be immediately fallen upon, or ive shall be in-vol-ved in a Ci-vil War, the 
most obstinate, aivful and tremendous that perhaps e-ver occurred since the Creation of the 
World. He will esteem it a signal blessing of Divine Providence conferred upon 
him, if any one Idea he hath suggested may be of any use at this dreadful crisis. 
And if otherwise, he will at least be able to comfort himself with the upri(;htness of 
his intentions in this feeble attempt, and with the assurance that he can do no harm, 
either to himself or any other person. 
December 12, 1774. 



Endorsed by the writer — on this the corrected draught — " Hints transmitted to 
Lord Dartmouth, Secretary of State for America, through the hands of Samuel Smith, 
Esq., of London, Merchant." 



This Appeal, and many similar ones we know, were made in vain to a govern- 
ment impressed by unwise counsels, and a King who declared •« That the Americans 
meant only to amuse by vague expressions of attachment and the strongest professions 



^2 Tories or Loyalists 

interest, accepted a seat in the then rebel Congress. While 
the Declaration of Independence was being considered, he 
listened in silence, and with profound attention to the debate, 
but with a grave face and a sad heart," when under later 
usages, a member who had determined to risk his life for the 
benefit of his "constituency," might have suggested some 
trifling amendment, to remind them at once of his presence at 
an important crisis, and the superior grasp of his intellect to 
that of the illustrious committee who reported it. It has been 
suggested that the Congress of 1776, was limited in its mem- 
bership to men whose merit had been recognized in the ad- 
ministration of their own private interests and duties, a valued 
experience to those assuming a public trust. Many of them 
had shown this also in the colonial assemblies, where the honor 
had compensated for the expense, beyond the trifling allow- 
ance. When the proper moment arrived he signed it, accepted 
it as the chart by which he was fated to sail to his personal 
shipwreck, overwhelmed while aiding to secure the privileges 

we enjoy. 

In devoting himself to the cause, he declined the honors off^ered 
to him, to compensate for those he had sacrificed. On a tie 
vote, between himself and William Livingston — another de- 
voted and able patriot — on the first election for governor, he de- 
clined further contest with so worthy a man, and also refused the 
Chief Justiceship, probably won by his magnanimity. With 

of loyalty while they were preparing for a general revolt, for the purpose of establishing 
an independent Empire." At least, the policy suggested by Mr. Stockton had some 
influence at home, for on the first day of the following September, Richard Penn 
and Arthur Lee delivered to Lord Dartmouth a petition from Congress to the King 
embodying the above views and probably borrowed from them, and were informed 

that NO ANSWER WOULD BE GIVEN. 

== Sanderson's Signers. 



in the Revolution, ^3 

his colleague Clymer, he visited the camp of the Northern 
army, and consulted with the gallant Schuyler, as to details 
already tending there to a great triumph. Soon, the ravages of 
war reached and destroyed that happy home, his family was 
driven into exile, his lands were laid waste, and his favorite 
horses appropriated by the raiders. Then, to complete his 
misfortunes, when captured by them, he was carried into New 
York, and from his prominent position as a recent King's officer, 
"ignominiously thrown into a common jail," and confined with 
such cruelty that when exchanged, upon the special remon- 
strances of Congress, conveyed by Washington, his shattered 
health unfitted him for further usefulness, and a lingerino- life of 
suffering was the final fulfillment of his remarkable promise, 
which terminated on the twenty-eighth of February, 1781, too 
soon to know of the effect of the artillery at Yorktown, in 
consummating the freedom for which, after exhorting his children 
to remember that " the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom," 
he had died a martyr. In many countries such service would 
be recorded by monuments " more lasting than brass," and his 
'^fete day" remembered and celebrated; in the engrossing 
present of what he aided to create, is it not doubtful if his 
name is known to all of those even in his native State, where 
some evidently concentrate in themselves and in their surround- 
ings, the beginning and end of all interest in the perpetuation of 
their existence as freemen. Is it not equally so, if he were 
living, whether those services would command a sufficient vote 
of appreciation to return him to Congress, if vigorously op- 
posed by some political organization or machine, supported by 
the now common outlay. 
6 



4.4. 'Tories or Loyalists 

But our national existence appears largely due to the folly of its 
rulers, even more than to the resistance of the colonies. When 
relieved of a hostile neighbor by the conquest of Canada, they 
needed no longer the protecting assistance of the parent gov- 
ernment. The continuous border warfare with the French then 
ended, and also that with all of the Indians, surrounding the 
upper lakes, in the successful defence of Detroit and the defeat of 
Pontiac. During the continuance of these wars, they had been 
compelled to keep an averao;e of 25,000 troops under arms, 
and had made a valuable expenditure of thirtv thousand lives. 
They claimed a large balance, some £350,000 for outlays. 
A vote of .£200,000 by Parliament on the recommendation of 
George III at once on his accession, while admitting the 
necessity for such assistance, seems inconsistent with a 
claim soon after made for a revenue of £100,000 by direct 
taxation. In 1775 the debt of Great Britain was estimated 
at three hundred millions and its interest charges in 1776, 
£4,800,000 of which £19,000 was claimed as for the expenses 
of the first year of the war. 

There had been dissensions between the Governors and the 
Assemblies, and a successful resistance to the foreign taxes on 
sugar and molasses. Writs of assistance ordering the collection, 
had been reluctantly granted, and little used. An uncomfortable 
relation had grown up between the colonies, now a prosperous 
and warlike people, and their mother country. Sir Robert 
Walpole=3 had years before divined that their direct taxation was 

23 Doubtless their clandestine trade with the Spanish Colonies, exporting British 
manufactures in exchange for specie, made stamps more objectionable, but far seeing 
Walpole claimed, that of every £500,000 so gained by them, one-half would be 
expended in England. Their friends throughout persistently sustained them in Parlia- 
ment Chatham, Rockingham, Newcastle, Camden and Conway amongst the earliest, 
with such success, that when partially to aid the East India Company, three pence a 
pound on tea was on motion of Lord North alone persisted in, — on the 5th of 
March, 1770 — Captain Preston had on that day, fired on the " Boston Mob," and 
the concession came too late. 



t'W/^ U^*^ ■nAa'T A^ ^tf^irrt£<nJa/ii 



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^/^^e^ vy7e^n'urry^ A^^ /-/tf^et^yfn 
















'^a^jiji) 






V 



^/2 ^^-^"^^/-^^i^ 



FROM THE ORIGINAL IN THE COLLECTION OF TB.M 



in the Revolution, ^^ 

to "disturb a hornets' nest," and left it as he said — as many 
political questions are bequeathed — "to those who should 
come after him, who had more courage than himself;" and 
the judicious Pitt, when it was suggested as a source of needed 
revenue, expressed his unwillingness to " burn his fino-ers 
with an American Tax." What the course of events would 
have been, if P>ederick, Prince of Wales, had lived to succeed 
his father, is a subject for conjecture. He appears to have 
been controlled by generous impulses, and advanced ideas of 
government, was frank and ingenuous in his carriage, while 
doubtless a subject for " calculation" or at least observation as 
to his future, as an heir apparent of mature years is apt to 
be. It was asserted that he favored dividing the control of 
his father's Whig advisors — representing the ruling party 
since the Protestant succession — and admitting the long 
neglected Tory element to share it, and to neutralize the in- 
fluence of both, by subordinating every element to the develop- 
ment, in his expected reign — of Bolingbroke's ideal government, 
ruled by a " Patriot King." Dying in his father's lifetime, at 
the age of forty-four, his son succeeded directly on the decease 
of his grandfather on the 26th of October, 1760, at the age of 
twenty-two, having been the first of his family born on 
British soil. 

The accession of George IIP-* to the throne when proclaimed 
throughout his dominions and colonies.^ was received everv where 

»■♦ It was said of him at that time " though his character was far from yet beino- 
perfectly developed, a very strong and apparently just partiality predominated in his 
favor. During the late reign he had uniformly abstained from all public interference 
in the affairs of government. His manners were in the ;highest degree decorous, his 
words unblemished, and his personal accomplishments corresponded with the eleva- 
tion of his rank and station. All appearances seemed to augur a reign of unin- 
terrupted glory and felicity, and the regret which the nation for a moment felt at the 
sudden demise of the good old King, was immediately absorbed in the transports of 
joy excited by the auspicious commencement of the reign of the young Monarch who 



46 Tories or Loyalists 

with demonstrations of hope and joy. The people mainly 
at last, attached to his family, augured from his character and 
youth, a relief from every existing complication. Their griev- 
ances and prayers for redress were early addressed to the new 
monarch, and steadily pressed on his attention, with increasing 
emphasis. The hand of his mother — a Princess who was known 
by the populace as " The Witch," and doubtless held herself to 
be capable and executive — seems to have shaped his destiny as 
woman has often influenced the destinies of mankind. His 
father, apparently no mean judge of character, speaking of John 
Stewart, Earl of Bute, whom he had first seen at the Duchess 
of Queensbury's fete, acting as " Lothario" in the " Fair 
Penitent," apparently soon as an intimate at Leicester House, 
epigrammatically described him as '* a fine showy man who 
would make an excellent ambassador in any court, where there 
was no business " ( Beeton's Universal Biography ), and all his- 

had very lately attained the age of complete majority; being born June 4, 1738." 
Behhajni Memoirs of George III. 

The late Dean Stanley, in his "Memorials of Westminster Abbey, " recalls 
some details of the coronation of George III, that Archbishop Seeker who officiated, 
had baptized, confirmed and married, the King. That the princely style in which 
the young King seated himself after the ceremony, attracted general notice." " No 
actor in the character of Pyrrhus, in the ' Distrest Mother,' " says Bishop Newton, 
who was present, " not even Booth himself, ever ascended the throne with so much 
grace and dignity." That the most interesting peculiarity of the coronation was the un- 
noticed attendance of the rival to the throne. Prince Charles Edward" ( the Pretender, 
then in London, under the name of Mr. Brown). " 1 asked my Lord Marshal," 
says David Hume, •' the reason for this strange fact." "Ay," says he, "a gentleman 
told me so, who saw him there, and whispered in his ear, ' Your Royal Highness is 
the last of all mortals whom I should expect to see here." "It was curiosity that 
led me," said the other, " but I assure you," added he, "that the person who is the 
cause of all this pomp and magnificence, is the man I envy least." Could he have 
realized what that rival would soon suffer from the losses here treated of, he would 
not have envied him the more, on that day that he inherited those troubles, with 
the preferment. 

Tlie signature of Archbishop Seeker, who aided and endowed Episcopal churches 
in America, and also officiated at the coronation of Lord Granville, Dunk, Earl of 
Halifax, and others of the Lords of Council annexed to the order for his proclamation 
in New York, like that of Goldsboro Banyer, the then Deputy Secretary, may be 
recalled in connection with our early history. 



in the Revolution. 4.7 

torians appear to agree in failing to approve of the man. He 
was, says Belsham — apparently an impartial writer — "a 
nobleman haughty in his manners, contracted in his capacity, 
despotic in his sentiments, and mysterious in his conduct, who 
was successfully insinuating himself into the confidence of the 
Princess of Wales, and of her son." Only Sunday intervened 
between the old King's death, and his taking his oath as a Privy 
Counsellor, and he at once supplanted his daughter. Princess 
Amelia, in the Rangership of Richmond Park.'s As the Mentor 
of the Prince he became a rapid meteor, shooting upward from 
place to place, from that position to Secretary of State, then to 
first Lord of the Treasury, and ruler of the Ministry of the 
Nation, of the Princess Dowager, and of his Sovereign. The 
latter had learned to thoroughly accept his infallibility and 
to adopt his ideas, which culminated in his misfortunes, and 
loss of colonies and intellect. Lord Bute drove from the 
counsels of his well intending master, all other advisers, including 
those apparently essential to his prosperity. Some refused to 
serve as his colleagues, others were supplanted in securing place 
and emolument for himself and his creatures. While in thus 
depriving America of friends in the Council, familiar with their 
rights and necessities, he concentrated power in himself. It is 
just to say, that he pressed the war against the Allies on the con- 
tinent, with vigorous success, on sea and land, bringing them 
to their knees, and negotiating the Peace of Fontainbleau in 
November, 1762, with France, Spain and Portugal, by which 
Canada and all Louisiana east of Mississippi was finally ceded, by 
France ; East and West Florida and all their territory east and 
south-east of that river, by Spain. In the haste with which he 
availed himself of thesesuccesses,securingthe results which made 

•3 Possibly to please her sister-in-law. 



48 "Tories or Loyalists 

the "Georgian Era" memorable, he immensely increased the area 
of the colonies. He neglected to provide any indemnity for Prus- 
sia as a faithful ally, from her position liable to future retaliation, 
and won those caustic, but just criticisms with which that 
Frederick, who was great with both pen and sword — after 
having protected his then exposed condition by a treaty with 
Russia and Sweden, has embalmed his memory in his CEuvres 
du Rot de Prusse. This, and the forcing through with great 
difficulty, even sustained by the whole power of the Govern- 
ment, of the " Cider Bill," involving a direct tax repugnant to 
the whole people, especially to the " Country Party," and the 
agricultural interests, and so establishing a precedent for those 
which cost the recent acquisitions in America, and their base, 
were the crowning results of a power which he suddenly 
resigned, when — as he admitted " single in a Cabinet of his own 
creating, with no soul in the House of Lords to support him, 
but two Peers." All of this unwise exercise of authority 
appears to have originated in the Princess Dowager's rejection, 
of what the world have since united in approving, as the 
wise judgment of her husband, and allowing the needy schemer 
he distrusted, the unrestricted control of that of his son, particu- 
larly on this to him, fatal question of direct taxation . 

William Henry Drayton — Chief Justice of South Caro- 
lina — who was in the habit of engrafting ardent precepts of 
patriotism with those of law, in his charges to the grand jury 
and also of contributing his salary to their promotion,^*^ ex- 
pressed the universal sense of the Colonies in one of these de- 
livered on the 15th of October, 1776. 

" Never were a people more wrapped up in a King than 
the Americans were in George HI in 1763. They revered 

»* He also died in service, a member of Congress at Philadelphia, Feb. 3, 1779. 



in the Revolution, 49 

and obeyed the British Government because it protected them, 
they fondly called Great Britain home^ but from that time her 
counsels took a ruinous turn ; ceasing to protect they sought to 
ruin America, the Stamp Act, Declaratory law and duties upon 
Tea and other articles, at once proclaimed the injustice, and an- 
nounced to Americans that they had but little room for hope, 
infinite space for fear. In vain they petitioned for redress." 

But England needed money ; and the means as proposed to 
the King, by Bute, seemed to him adequate and proper. In an 
effort to add to her revenue the £ 100,000, Mr. Grenville''^ his 
successor as first Commissioner of the Treasury, proposed to 
collect it by the Stamp Act in 1763, and so partially reimburse 
her outlay in the Seven Years' War, which had in part originated 
in the defence of her Colonies. In this she thoroughly aroused 
them, already exasperated, to a forcible resistance, so sig- 
nificant as to strengthen the hands of its opponents in Par- 
liament sufficiently to effect the repeal of that already obsolete 
act. 

Even then there was a chance for reconciliation, for which 
the Colonies still steadily petitioned and labored through their 
agents and friends. But the fumes of the "Cider Bill" had 
influenced the royal head, he persevered in his policy, and the 
brilliant Charles Townshend, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, 

"7 In the course of the debate on the Cider Bill, Mr. Grenville, annoyed by Mr, 
Pitt's ridicule of its subject, replied, " The Right Honorable Gentleman complains 
of the hardship of this Tax; why does he not tell us where we can lay another tax 
instead of it ? " repeating two or three times emphatically, " Tell me inhere you 
can lay another tax." Mr. Pitt thus unseasonably appealed to, replied in a musical 
tone, in the words of a favorite air, "Gentle Shepherd tell me where," which, 
amused the House and fixed the soubrequct on Mr. Grenville. Mr. Belsham, 
who related it in 1795, did not view it even then as wholly a joke. "Little 
certainly," says he, " did this minister imagine how fertile would be the invention of 
his successors, or how thoroughly subdued by time and custom the spirits of the 
people." This tax, however, was also soon obsolete from non usor. 



50 Tories or Loyalists 

four years later essayed to increase the still insufficient revenue, 
by the substitution of a more remunerative duty upon tea, glass, 
paper and painters' colors, under the impression that the form 
and not the substance of the taxation was unpalatable, but even 
when limited to tea alone, its attempted enforcement was, as 
we know, the immediate cause of the loss of her Colonies, at 
least at that time. 

It was a small beginning to a mighty result, the spark that 
caused a great conflagration, in which, in spite of the efforts of 
Lord North, into whose hands and those of Lord George 
Germain, — whom Belsham emphasizes as "so famous, or 
rather infamous, under his former appellation of Lord George 
Sackville," — after several intermediate unsuccessful ministries 
it fell, to make the final efforts to extinguish it by conciliation, 
too long delayed, or by force ; and so to officiate, in the final 
dismemberment of a portion of Great Britain's dominions, 
now vastly larger and greater, than the whole at that period. 
The Tory interests were then remorselessly burned. 

The few details of public outlay referred to in these old 
papers, only valuable here as connected with the subject, are, 
it will be seen, trifling items of the then immense expendi- 
ture of the British Government in that fruitless struggle for 
a small additional Revenue, and additions to her indebtedness 
always very great, but easily carried in ordinary times by the 
appreciation of her Funded Debt, as a security by the world. 
From these fragments, we can discern the continued confidence 
of the Government in Sir John Johnson, after the military results 
elsewhere referred to, and that he was entrusted with the care 
and control of his former allies and neighbors, apparently as the 
superior of Col. Guy Johnson, on whom the Superintendency 



in the Revolution. 51 

devolved at the decease of Sir William, probably so arranged 
in order to allow him to devote his uninterrupted attention to the 
care of an estate, then only second to that of Penn's in size, and 
to enjoy it as a landed gentleman. Perhaps, as a clear judge of 
character in ordinary cases, he distrusted the qualities of his son 
to assume the Superintendency ; an impression which seems 
oftener to prevail with an elderly man, than that of a too high 
appreciation of the ability of any apparent successor. In the 
event, fate did not free him from the cares from which his 
father may have hoped to relieve him, after having himself 
long borne their weight. 

It may be noticed that the following order providing for the relief 
of several corps of Loyalists belonging to General Burgoyne's 
Army, and other Refugees, deducts the valueof provisions, issued 
to " said Corps of Royalists and others, between 25th October, 
inn-]" — three months after the conclusion of the foregoing 
Diary — ''and 24th April, 1778," and probably includes the 
troops it treats of, as then still under command. 

Guy Carleton, Knight of the Bath^ General and Commander- 
in-chief of his Majesty's Forces in the Province of ^ebec ■ and 
frontiers thereof. 

You are hereby directed and required to pay or cause to be 
paid to Sir John Johnson, Bart., or to his assigns, the sum 
of six thousand four hundred and sixty seven pounds, eleven 
shillings and six pence, sterling dollars at four shillings and 
eight pence each, being the allowance made for the present 
relief of several corps of Royalists, belonging to General Bur- 
goyne's army, and sundry other persons who have taken refuge 
in this Province from the Rebellious Colonies, as per annexed 
accounts. You will also deduct the sum of one thousand and 
twenty-four pounds, six shillings and eight pence sterling, being 
the amount of provisions issued to the said corps of Royalists 
and others, between 25th October, 1777, and 24th April, 1778. 

7 



52 Tories or Loyalists 

And this, with the acquittances of the said Sir John Johnson, 
Bt., or his assigns, shall be your sufficient Warrant and Dis- 
charge. 

Given under my hand, at Quebec, this 29th of 
April, 1778. 

Guy Carleton."^ 
To John Powell, Esq., 

Dy. Paymaster General, 

His Majesty's forces at Quebec. 

This appointment — d.^ted five months after the virtual 
close of the war at Yorktown, although eight before the nego- 

^ The last English commander in-chief in her lost colonies. By escaping from 
captivity at Montreal in 1775, passing at night, with muffled oars, throujih his ad- 
versaries' forces, throwing himself into Quebec, and rallying its feeble garrison, he 
saved the city and deprived the adventurous Montgomery of his victory. The 
jealousy of Lord George Germaine is said to have confined his service to Canada, 
and deprived him of the command of the expedition led by Burgoyne. His loyal 
endurance of this slight, and his cordial assistance with the favorite of the hour, 
won for him Burgoyne's recorded appreciation. General Burgoyne was apparently a 
man of ability, and hid been a successful soldisr in Portugal. He was a social 
celebrity also, and owed his progress to family influence. His devotion to pleasure is 
charged to have oelayed him — while in fact probably waiting for the promised 
cooperation of General Howe — when celerity of movement appears to have offered 
the only chance for either advance or escape. 

It has also been claimed, mainly by those not present, that his delay near Fort Edward, 
to procure horses tor a very heavy artillery and train, increased the need of provisions, 
all of which the disasters of the detachments on his flanks at Fort Stanwix and 
Bennington, prevented his securing, while they crippled an originally small force, 
to swing so far from its base. It was also asserted, that he should have held Fort 
Edward, prepared to advance when he had satisfactory intelligence from below, or 
even to retreat to Can ida ; an apparent answer would be, that he had but five days 
provisions wben he yielded ; inconsiierable (or a siege and had no knowledge of 
Clinton's small supplies, sent to Albany. That the wfiole country encouraged by 
those disasters, was rising, and troops being hurried forward, while his own were 
daily reduced 5 and that he was in effect captured before he surrendered. It was 
only at tfie end of a century, that General Howe's failure to advance to his aid was 
accounted for, by an explanation, written at the time by Lord Shelburne, and pub- 
lished by his a|)preciative grandsun, in hij life in 1875, by which it appears that 
Lord George Germaine, also a man of pleisure, bein^; engaged to dine in the country, 
signed the orders tor Burgoyne, but those for Gen. Howe requiring to be rewiiiten, 
were to be sent to him, for his signatuie there. The packet unexpectedly sailed 
with only the former, and so produced the complication, while the latter were found 
pigeon holed in the office of that valuible public servant, years afterwards, and so 
America gained a battle only second in value from its results. This blunder, as many 
other explanations just to that officer, and perhaps the best conception of the good and 



in the Revolution. 53 

tiation of the Preliminary Peace — creating him Superin- 
tendent General of all Indians at Quebec and the frontier 
Provinces, including his old neighbors four of the Six Nations — 
might imply that his hopes as a soldier had ended, with those 
for the restoration of his inherited domain. The evidence 
however exists of his continued interests in the differences with 
the Indians, still occupying the territory claimed by the United 
States, proving his later hostility. 
Sir : White Hall, i8 March^ 1782. 

The King has been graciously pleased to appoint you 
Superintendent General, and Inspector General of the Six 
Nations of Indians and their Confederates and also of the 

evil in iiis cliaracter, have also been afforded to readers by the daughters of a more 
fortunate General, his son Sir John Burgoyne, who are now residing in Hampton 
Court, in the "Political and Military Sketches " published by their inspiration, by Mr. 
Fonblanque in 1876. These, with the " Memoirs of the Marquis of Rockingham," 
edited by Lord Albemarle ini852, "The correspondence of the Duke of Bedford and 
Lord Chatham," "The Evelyn's in America, "contributed by J. D. Scull, Oxford, 
1881, Judge Jones' -'History of New York in the Revolution," and the Gates 
papers, contributed by Dr. T. A. Emmett to the ■' Magazine of American History," 
are all among the recent proofs of the mellowing influence of Time upon History. 
There appear to be many coincidences in the career of Burgoyne and that of 
Gates, identified as they were in service and in eventual destiny. Both types of the 
conventional gentleman, brilliant and epigrammatic with the pen and audacious with 
the sword. Equally open to a generous impulse, the error of self appreciation and 
a desire for rapid glory, both based some impression of infallibility on the rules of 
technical education and the prestige of former service. Both appear in history fit 
subjects to point the moral that while success is self recording, misfortune commands 
its equal right lo a reliable record. With probably less natural ability than either. 
Gen. Carleton combined with courage and decision the additional requisite of business 
capacity. He appears to have received in all history, that which these brilliant co- 
temporaries siiught for and failed to achieve, as a reward for his unassuming useful- 
ness and admitted humanity. It has been considered whether there would have been a 
Saratoga in our roll of victories, had that active commander led the expedition. 
It was his singular fortune to serve in America through the war, to hold ^''^''s*^ 
»t its outset, and surrender New York at its conclusion. After the peace he becam« 
Lord Dorchester and remained in Canada as Commander-in-Chief of the British 
forces. Th° eccentric General Charles Lee, another soldier of the school of Bur- 
goyne and Gates, influenced by his too little faith in Washington as a soldier — after 
the attempt to hold Fort Washington — and too much in a sense of his own educated 
luperiority, attempted to treat, for a hasty completion of the war, as Dr. George H. 
Moore has shown, with an indhviduaUty too intense, to conceive its exercise treason- 
able. 



5^ Ivories or Loyalists 

Indians in the Province of Quebec, and in the Provinces lying 
on the Frontiers thereof. 

I am happy to inform you of this Mark of His Majesty's Favor 
and Confidence and as it conveys to you most authentically 
His Royal Approbation of your former services, it will, I am sure, 
impress you with the warmest Sentiments of Duty and Gratitude, 
and excite you to exert your utmost endeavors to render your 
present appointment beneficial to the Public, by establishing a 
strict economy through all branches of your Department, which 
will be the best means of recommending yourself to His 
Majestys future Favor and Attention. You will see by the 
terms of your warrant that you are to follow such Orders and 
instructions as you shall receive from the Commander-in-Chief 
of His Majestys Forces in the Provinces of Quebec, I have 
signified to General Haldimand His Majestys Pleasure that 
he should make you such Allowances for your Services and Ex- 
penses as he shall judge adequate and proper. I have therefore 
only to signify to you His Majestys Commands that you do 
with all possible expedition return to Quebec and take upon 
you the exercise of the very important office to which you are 
appointed and immediately after your arrival address yourself to 
General Haldimand or the Commander-in-Chief of His Majesty's 
Forces who will give you orders for your further proceedings, 
which you are in all cases to pay the most exact and punctual 
obedience. Sir, Your Most Obedient 

humble servant, 

Sir John Johnson, Bar.3° W. Ellis.^9 

But, when at this interval there arose a report, that the Amer- 
icans were advancing to carry their successes into Canada, 
and some military movements towards the frontier — probably 
merely demonstrations — had given it color, we find3' Sir Ferdi- 

^ He occupied many positions of honor and trust; was a member of the Privy 
Council, and of Parliament for Weymouth, and created Lord Mendip in 1794. 

30 Sir John had already performel similar duties probably with local rank. He 
was at this time in his thirty-sixth year. 

3» Riedesel Memoirs. 








I^tOa-eiatc^^lzg.x^Cingrtn^Ser'fyJ-MauiUvtgucierks efncesfthe distncs ocMt .yr'gu sottA^rn iuirue fff^NmTe^ 



in the Revolution. 55 

nand Halditnand, commanding in Canada, alive to the danger, 
communicating to Baron von Riedesel, in command at Sorel, 
in a letter dated Quebec, February 13, 1783, that he had 
despatched a messenger to the " Chevalier Johnson," to send 
"five or six of the most active, and expert Mohav^^ks, to watch 
the road from Albany to West Point," and suggesting that he, 
" with his savages and light batallion, fall back a few miles, even 
about Point au Fer," which shows him at that date again in 
active service. 

The one thousand pounds a year furnished him, liberal pay at 
that time, no doubt, if poorly compensating for his own lost rev- 
enue, attests that the outlays of his government, had not yet 
been checked by its reverses. We can gather from another 
paper, that he had been engaged at that time on picket duty, 
in the neighborhood of his old home, scouting, having 
soldiers and scouts " piloted," secreting and procuring intelli- 
gence, all incident to border expeditions, probably entrusted to 
him from his knowledge of localities and perhaps involving some 
of those inhumanities, which tradition have laid to his account. 
For fourteen months of this service, General Haldimand appears 
to have compensated him at the rate of ten shillings sterling a 
day, a liberal allowance also, at existing values, but implying 
that he was not then under regular military pay. 

Accounts of contingent expenses incurred by Sir John 
Johnson, Baronet, on account of the Government by orders 
of His Excellency General Haldimand in sundry services be- 
tween the 25 Dec, 1780, and the 13 March, 1782. 

1781. 

Aug. 5. To cash to Michael Lett and party for 
their Services and Expenses on a 
Scout to Tryon County £il 13 4 

Sept. 10. To do. to Sergeant Haines and party 
for their services, etc., on a Scout 
to the County of Tryon 15 10 O 



56 Ivories or Loyalists 

1782. 

Nov. 10. To Peter Prunner, late of the Albany 
Bush, in the County of Tryon, for 
Piloting soldiers and scouts em- 
ployed in the service and supplying 
them with Provisions between the 
16th June, 1779, and the 28th 
September, 1782 36 80 

Dec. 15. To do. to Wm. Parker, Sen., for Provi- 
sions and Surveying, and procuring 
Intelligence and assisting Scouts 
Provisions between the 15th Sep- 
tember, 1778, and the 25th Aug., 

1781 30 

" 20. To do, to Wm. Kennedy, for sundry 
services in secreting and procuring 
intelligence and Assisting Scouts 
with Provisions between the 15th 
Sept., 1778, and the 25th Aug., 

^ i78i.--. • •• 35 15 6 

To cash paid to the late Samuel Mc- 
Kay, Esq., for Provisions overpaid 

for by him for his Corps 39 '5 6 

To an allowance from his Excellency 
General Haldimand for Extra Ser- 
vice from the 28th Dec, 1780 to 
the 13th March, 1782, inclusive at 
los. sterling per dav X222 237 17 i 

Currency £406 19 5 

John Johnson. 

Other papers refer merely to routine duty ; in them " Molly 
Brant " is recalled as a pensioner, and Colonels Guy Johnson, 
Butler, and John Campbell, all familiar names in partisan war- 
fare, as connected still with the government service. 

Receipt of Lieut. Col. John Campbell. 

Received from Sir John Johnson, Baronet, Superintendent 
General and Inspector General of Indian Affairs, Two Thou- 



in the Revolution, 



SI 



sand and fifty- seven Pounds, Thirteen Shills and Eight pence 
Halifax Currency being the amount of Disbursements paid by 
me for the Indian Department under my direction from the 
25th of March to the 24th September, 1783, per acc't and 
vouchers delivered to him by 

John Campbell. 
£2057 13 8 Cy. 

Subsistence wanted for the Officers of the Six Nations De- 
partments (rom 25 March to 24 Sept., 1783, Inclusive. 



Rank 

One Col ic Super- 
intendents (Pay 
rec'd from the 
General to Dec 
24 next) 

One Deputy ir 
Canada 

Two Lieutenant 
(Clement & 
Magin) .... 

One Surgeon Mate 

One Clerk . . 

One Comiiissary 
(Moses Ibbittj 
Invalided and 
discharged , . . 

One Issued as a 
Volunteer (John 
Service) 

One Interpreter 
(Le Curagine) 
Invalided 

Catharine Hare 
widow of the 
late Lieut Hare 
Pension . . . 



Commen- 
cing 



25 March 
do 



do 
do 
do 



do 



do 



do 



do 





No. ot 


Ending 


Days 


24 Sept 


184 


do 


184 


do 


.84 


do 


184 


do 


184 


do 


184 


do 


184 


do 


184 


do 


184 



Rate per day 



a dollar 

do 

di. York Cy 



a dollar 



6j. York C) 



a dollar 



Aew Vork 
£ i d 



Sterling 
£ ; d 



" '< " 300 
<< (t (< 



»47 4 
73 12 
55 4 



73 li 
55 4 
73 I* 



478 o 8 279 I 4 



689 I 4 
CoL. Guy Johnson. 
Amt of Lieut Col Butlers Deputy Agents return hereto annexed paid 

by his draft on the Superintendent General. ... 171 3 4 4 



Two Thousand four hundred & 2 pounds ^. 
E. E. Quebec 25 October 1783. 
£689 I 4 Cul Johnson 
171 3 4 4 Lt Col Butler 



£2,401 5 S 
G. Johnson. 



2402 5 8 Sterling 



58 Tories or Loyalists 

Received from Sir John Johnson, Baronet, his Majestys 
Super Intendent General & Inspector General for Indian Aft'airs 
in North America the sum of <£68g is /\.d sterling for my own 
and a Deputys Salary, the pay of officers and others employed in 
his Majestys service in the Indian Department under my Super- 
intendency, from the 25 March to 24 Sept., 1783, andlcertifie 
that the said Sir John Johnson also pay the sum of .£1713 4^ 
4^ for the pay of Lieut. Col. Butler, Deputy Agent, that of the 
officers and others employed in his Majestys service in the 
Indian Department in the district of Niagara as per the above 
list &c. G. Johnson, 3^ 

Col. ^ Supt. of the Six Nations. 

Montreal, 4 Jugust., lyS^.. 
Sir : Please pay to Mr. Charles McCormick or Order Sixty 
Eight Pounds twelve & sixpence currency being the amount of 
his pay frorrv 25 March to the 24 September 1784 as Clerk & 
Commissary of Indian Stores for the District of Detroit. 

John Johnson. 
Mr. R. Dobie, Merchant. 

£54 I5J-. N. Y. Currency. Cataragui. 20 Jugust., 1784. 
Sir: At sight please pay Mr. Robert Hamilton or order the 
sum of Fifty-four pounds fifteen shillings New York Currency 
being the amount of my half pay up to the 24 of last March 
which pass to account as per advice from. 

Sir, Your very humble Servant, 

Ebenezer Allen. 
To Sir John Johnson Knt 

& Baron Knight (sic) Montreal. 
Mr. Dobie will please pay the above draft. 

J. Johnson. 

For .£50 Currency. Montreal, 20 August^ 1784. 

Sir : Please pay to Mrs. Mary Brant33 or order Fifty pounds 
Halifax Currency in part of her pension from Government 
from 23 Oct., 83 & 22 Sept. 1784. 

John Johnson. 

To Mr. Richard Dobie, Montreal. 

3« Col. Guy Johnson, nephew, son-in-law, some time secretary and named as 
successor to Sir William Johnson. 

33 The widow of Joseph Brant [Thayendanegea] who survived her husband thirty 
years. 



in the Revolution. 59 

London, Dec. 24, 1784. 
Received from Sir John Johnson, Baronet, His Majestys 
Superintendent General and Inspector General of Indian Affairs 
in North America, Three Hundred Pounds Sterling for my 
Salary as Superintendent of the Six Indian Nations and their 
Allies from 25 June to the 24 Dec, 1784, Inclusive. 

£300. • G. JoHNSON,34 

Col. iff Superintendent of the Six Nations. 
A letter from Major General Hope, Commander-in-Chief 
&c., to Sir John is apparently interesting, as throwing further 
light on a restless escapade, which is referred to in the life of 
that early representative of the possibilities and effect of educa- 
tion, even upon a savage mind. He had determined at this 
time to seek in person, the indemnity for the losses of his people, 
which Sir John — who wished to prevent his absence, at what 
he considered an important moment, had failed to secure in his 
own recent visit. 

Quebec, Nov. 9, 17B5, 

Dear Sir : 

I had the honor to receive your letter of the 6 by express 
last night at ten o'clock but too late I am sorry to tell you, by 
two days for producing the effect desired ; Josephss having come 
to the resolution suddenly of taking passage in the Packet 
which sailed on Sunday at eleven o'clock in the forenoon ; 
having been made to believe as he said that the Madona was not 
a safe conveyance from having so few hands, but rather, I am 
apt to believe from some suspicion that he had entertained of 
being disappointed in getting away at all if he deferred it till the 
last Trip, or perhaps artfully wishing to avoid the knowledge 
of your sentiments which he might expect that the arrival of 
David at Montreal would produce. In short, my dear Sir John, 
he was bent upon going and is off notwithstanding my different 
attempts to dissuade him — offered in such a manner at first as 

34 An interesting letter from Col. Guy Johnson to Sir William, too late for inser- 
tion here, will be found in Appendix A. 

35 Captain Joseph Brant — Thayendanegea. 



6o Tories or Loyalists 

not to ^ive him surprize, and at last without disguise of his acting 
contrarv to yours and my wishes and inclinations — all however 
to no purpose. I have therefore with much regret to return 
you the letter addiessed to Joseph, your other Packet to the 
Dep. Paymaster General was sent to him. 

I congratulate you on the arrival of the Dallis with your 
things — she got up yesteiday but has ■ brought me no Dis- 
patches of any consequence. That we must go on with the 
Indian business as concerted — keeping them in good humour as 
much as possible and preaching up patience — & firmness — 
but by no means encouraging their breakmg out. As to 
anything you may think proper to do to retain those Chiefs & 
others of influence, or to effect these purposes above mentioned, 
I shall most readily acquiesce in. With respect to the tools 
you speak of that were by mistake inserted in the Loyalists 
Invoice, orders shall be given in consequence of your repre- 
sentation to this effect to deliver up the remainder of them not 
actually issued for the use of the Indians on your order; as 
likewise to comply with your requisition for the same purpose 
to deliver any other articles out of the stores reserved for the 
use of the Loyalists, being perfectly convinced that from your 
equal desire to supply and knowledge of the wants of both, 
that no partial use will ever be made of such discretionary 
latitude lodged with you. 

I return you many thanks and am most flattered by your 
obliging professions and wishes to myself — request you will 
make my respects to Lady Johnson and Mrs. Claus, and 
I am Dear Sir with unfeigned regard 

Your very faithful and obedient humble servant 
Sir John Johnson, Bart., Henry Hope. 3^ 

Superintendent General, &c. &c. 

Joseph Brant here referred to, is generally recalled by the 
striking incidents of his life, 

A pure blooded Onondaga, the son of a chief, but educated 
by Sir William's care at Dr. Wheelock's celebrated Moor 

36 General Hope was in America in 1775 as Major of the 44th Foot (Gen. Aber- 
crombie's Regt.), and had seen much service there. 




THK GREAT CM-"LAiX dF THE SLX. ^ATTOl^S. 
'n.imr.lTaiuliihiL^f&.nL'imyr.iii ■'Wmi-h.^.lyA.Did- 



in the Revolution, 6i 

school, he proved an apt scholar, soon fitted as an interpreter 
to Dr. Charles JefFry Smith, a self sustaining young missionary. 

Gallantly protecting him when attacked by the Indians, and 
performing all his duties satisfactorily he won at this period the 
testimony of Rev. Samuel Kirkland, " he conducted himself so 
much like a Christian, and a soldier, that he gained great est ;em." 

Later, he interested himself in the work of the " Society for 
the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign parts " and labored 
with them for the civilization of his people. 

When becoming the chief of the Six Nations he wielded a 
great authority and cooperated with Sir William Johnson, to 
whom he became allied, as well by affinity as by gratitude. In 
their close association he doubtless developed the appreciation 
of the position of his people, and the capacity to vindicate it with 
an able pen.37 He visited England in 1775, and again as that let- 
ter shows at the end of the war,attracting distinguished attention 

37 This letter as to the rights oi his people and his own appreciation of honorable 
dealing is an example. 
Sm . Nassau, 30 December, 1794. 

Your letters oi the 17th & 20th November, '94, from Konondaigua, I have now 
before me and have to say, that at all of our meetings during the whole of last 
summer, our thoughts were solely bent on fixing a boundary line between the con- 
federate Indians and the United States, so as that peace might be established on a 
solid basis, for which reason we pointed out the line we did, well knowing the justness 
of it and that it would be ratify'd by the whole Indian confederacy. 

Ai an indiindual I must regret to find that the Boundary so pointed out has noiu 
been abandoned, the establishing of ivhich I am ivell convinced loould ha-ve been the 
means of bringing about a lasting and permanent peace. This object so earnestly to be 
desired has ever made me exert every nerve, -wishing for nothing more than mutual 
justice. This line you II recollect loas offered to Governor St. Clair at Muskingum, and 
notivithstanding the ttoo successful campaigns of the Indians after this, I still adhered to the 
same and still do, this I hope will satisfy you that my ivish ever -was for Peace, the offer 
made luas rejected by Mr. St Clair, andivhat the consequences has been you nuell knoiv, 
I should be sorry if your efforts ivere croivned -with no better success, as your exertions 
I hope are not influenced by similar motives -with his. You must also recollect that I 
differed even with my friends respecting this Boundary^ and to the fwo last messages you 
then received my name ivas to neither of them, because I thought them too unreasonable, 
this made me take more pains and trouble to bring the Indians and you to an understand- 
ing than I ivas under any obligation to do — 'Otherivise than humanity dictated to me, 
having nothing but our mutual interest in view, and as to Politics I study them not, my 



62 Ivories or Loyalists 

partially from his reputation, but also as the chief of the best 
known tribes of the American Savages, a lion worthy of ex- 
hibition. He probably realized then, as he appears to have done, 
in all the different duties he performed, as their ruler and protec- 
tor, their inferiority to the white man from the want of that 
education, which made him sensitive as to their ignorance. 

His visit, however, was marked with much appreciation. 
The King received him, with good humor, even when he refused 
to kiss his hand, but offered that mark of homage to the Queen. 
The Duke of Northumberland, Lords Dorchester and Hastings 
and General Stewart -^the son of Bute — who had all served 

principle is founded on justice, and justice is all I ivish jor, and newer shall I exert 
myself on behalf of any nation or nations, let their opinion of me be tvhat it "will, unless 
I plainly see they are just and sincere in their pursuits, doing luhat in e-very re>pect to 
justice may belong. When I percei-ve such are the sentiments of a People no endeavors 
shall be tvanting on my part to bring neighbors to a good understanding. 

I must again repeat that I am extremely sorry this Boundary so long since pointed 
out, should have been abandoned, it being an i.bject of such magnitude and which 
much depends on the whole Indian confederacy being interested. I should therefore 
have supposed it would have been more for our mutual interest and would have had 
a better effect, to have dealt upon a larger scale, than within the small compass of 
the Five Nations, the meeting being intended solely to talk over the business 
of the Boundary and then to have acquainted the whole confederacy with what 
had passed, so that something final could have been determined on as all that 
part of the country is common to the whole. You say on your part everything has 
been openly and fairly explained and that you shall be disappointed if the Chiefs do 
not acknowledge your candour, I can for my own part form no opinion, whether it 
is so or not, being perfectly ignorant of ivhat has passed, but eiier look upon it that 
business fairly transacted should be adhered to as sacred. And that you are still ready 
to make peace with the Western Nations, this has made me say much about the 
Boundary line, in order that peace and friendship might be established between you, 
this obliges me to say they ought to have been included in this treaty and to have 
been consulted with as well as those who were there, they being equally interested 
with the Six Nations as to this line. j4s to the British they are an independent nation^ 
as ivell as the United States or the Indian Nations and of course act for themsel-ves as 
all other White nations do. My mentioning in my letter to you that I was sorry Mr. 
Johnson was looked upon as a Spy, was because I knew the Five Nations so often 
erred in their transactions with the White People, it being myself in person from 
the wish of the Indians that requested Mr. Johnson should go to the Treaty in con- 
sequence of which request he was permitted. I was well aware at the same time of 
the reception he would meet with, as we are an independent People I ever thought 
our Council should be private, but must at the same time say, we have an un- 



in the Revolution. 63 

in America, greeted him as a brother veteran and Lords War- 
wick and Percy, and Dr. Johnson's James Boswell, ordered his 
portraits, the last, a high testimony that he was a " lion." 

Yet doubtless he realized his own questionable position, 
when seeking any trust, with his cultivated nature disguised by 
the face of a savage. The accompanying letter of Washing- 
ton displays the general want of confidence in them, by all 
who were prejudiced against his race. 

He adhered to the British Government throughout the war, 
and after the Treaty of Peace, in which no provision was made 
'as to the territory of his people, struggled to retain what they 
had formerly possessed. The indefiniteness of the Treaty line, 

doubted rieht to admit at our Councils who we please — of course the United States 
have it optional whether they will treat or not with any Nation or Nations when 
Foreien Agents are present. . „ , , xt • 

You seem to think in your letter of the ioth that the Senekas are the Nation most 
concerned in the Trusts in question agreeable to the lines you point out. At the differ- 
ent Treaties held since the year '83 I allow the Senekas from their pioceedings seemed 
to be the only Nation concerned in that country, although the whole Five Nations 
have an equal right, one with the other, the country having been obtained by the 
bint exertions in war with a Powerful Nation formerly living southward of Buffalo 
Creek called Eries and another Nation then living at Tioga Point, so that by our 
successes all the country between that and the Mississippi became the joint property 
of the Five Nations, all other nations now inhabiting this great Tract of Country 
was allowed to settle by the Five Nations. , , , ... , ... 

This 1 hope will convince you that the Mohawks have an equal claim and right 
to receive in proportion with the others of the Five Nations, but as I am ignorant of 
the Transaction, knowing nothing of what has passed and what was the result of the 
Treaty, must therefore defer saying anything further on the subject until I know the 
particulars, which I hope will be ere long. As to the others of the Five Nations 
residing on the Grand River they must answer for themselves. I am not so par- 
ticular in this as I might be, seeing no great necessity for it, as I hope to see General 
Chapin ere long. In reading the Speech you have sent me I pe^^eive that you say 
we requested you might be sent to ICmdle the Council Fire &c. This I k"ow to be 
a mistake, in our speech to General Chap.n we wished the President of the United 
State, to send a Commissioner to our Fire Place at Buffaloe Creek (your name being 
mentioned) Not that you was to come and kindle a Council Fire elsewhere — & 
Shat you requested our assistance to bring about a Peace, &c. - You did and every- 
thing has been done by us faithfully and sincerely by pointing out the Medicine that 
would accomplish it, your relinquishing p.rts of your claims in the Indian Country.. 
You aho sav I told Genl Chapin at fVinnys that it was the Bntnh that pre-ventcd tht 
Treaty taking place. I said so then and still do. What enabled me to say so -was the 
Gentlemen belonging to the Indian Department in that quarter interjenng m the business. 



64 Tories or Loyalists 

which long remained as flexible as a wire fence, moved back 
and forth at will, even looking for the sources of the Mississippi 
at the Lake* of the Woods, instead of Itaska lake, far below, and 
which required four subsequent treaties, an arbitration, and a 
war, to settle ; seems a reasonable cause for discussions, attempts 
at treaties, and long complications. 

These letters to Colonels Pickering and Monroe are merely 
suggestions of the many records existing of his capacity and 
persistency, in seeking to protect and retain what his forefathers 
had held by an undisputed title, before even the Johnsons had 
come with the authority of conquest, to divide it. 

When Gist, the companion of Washington, was exploring the 
valley of the Ohio, in 1752, a Delaware chief demanded of him : 

Had the line as pointed out by us been accepted by the United States their interference 
would not ha-ve prevented Peace then taking place as the Five Nations had pledged 
themsel-ves to see it ratified. As to the business of the White Nations I percei-ve it at 
present to be a lottery tvhich ivill be uppermost cannot be known until dranvn, the most 
ponverful no doubt ivill succeed, but let ivho will be successful our situation is the same, as 
•we still have whites to deal with whose aims are generally similar. Tou mention the 
People of France took the Indian method. All their warriors turned out. The Indian 
warriors are altvays ready to turn out to defend their just rights. But Indian warriors 
would not be ready to Butcher in an inhuman shocking manner their King, ^een. 
Nobles and others, this is acting worse than what is called Sa-vage. The Indians art 
not entirely destitute of humanity, but from every appearance it has fed from France. I 
must therefore say the French ha-ve not acted as the Indians do. You likewise mention 
that you told the Deputies from the Westward who met you at this place, that 
though you was willing to run a new line yet it was impossible to make the Ohio 
the Boundary, this I believe is a mistake as the word Ohio was never mentioned at 
that time. You may rest assured that I do not swerve from any expressions I ha-vt 
made use of. I know the necessity for being candid, especially at this critical juncture. 
I still earnestly hope that Peace may be established without further bloodshed & that 
Friendship may reign between the People of the United States and the Indian Nations, 
this be assured is the Sincere wish of 

Sir, Your Most Obedient 

Humble Servant 
Timothy Pickering, Esqr. Jos. Brant. 

Col. Pickering had been employed for some years in these negotiations as being a 
member of the President's Cabinet as Post Master General and in this year made 
Secretary of War. Another very interesting and able letter of Brant to Colonel 
James Monroe in four neatly written pages is omitted, as partially printed in the id 
Vol. of his Life. 



in the Revolution^ 65 

" Where are the lands of the Indians ? the French clainn all on 
one side of the river, and the English all on the other."38 
Such was the position of the heritage which Brant believing 
that he was born to maintain and transmit, was then loosing. 
Failing, as many have done before and since, he retired into 
Canada and spent his later years under the protection of those 
with whom he had made common cause, but personally so 
delicately accepting their bounty, as in one instance to question 
his own right to a pension, as a retired military officer. 

Thomas Campbell, lived to correct — in afoot note — his 
record of Brant's cruelty, in his widely read " Gertrude of 
Wyoming,"' but its subject who had grieved over it, had died 
too soon for the comforting retraction. His absence on that 
occasion, threw the weight of the massacre on a white savage, 
Colonel John Butler, who doubtless had the same authority as 
that conferred on his kinsman and subordinate by the commis- 
sion annexed. 39 

Brant was, however, present at the battle of Minisink, where 
great cruelty was displayed, for which he has been censured. 
If he was responsible for it, it detracts from many other evi- 
dences of his humanity in warfare, and shows the trace of 
the savage element in his character, when fired by war. 

38 Griswold and Lossing's Washington. 

39 This commission indicating care in its instructions, now unusual in such documents, 
and wear from use. is that of Walter Butler, noted both tor his efficiency and cruelty, 
killed at Canada Creek, on the 29th of October, 178 1, by a force ur.der Col. 
Marinus Willett, while retreating from a raid to Warren's Bush, and his lormer 
home; in the year succeeding the expedition of Sir John. 

Guy Carleton, Knight of the Bath, Captain General and Governor in Chief of the 
orovince of Quebec and Territories depending thereon, &c., &c., General and Com- 
mander in-Cliief of his Majesty's For.es in said Province and the Frontiers thereof 
Ijj. &c To Walter Butler, Esci.., Greeting : 

Reposing special trust and Contidence.in your Loyalty, Courage and good Conduct, 
I do by these Presents Constitute and appoint you to be Capatn in a Corps of Rangcn 



66 Tories or Loyalists 

He would appear to have been a man of large capacity ; and 
his record a noticeable evidence of the result of its development 
in time of peace, by the same wise appliances, now interesting 
to examine in use, at the school at Hampton, Va., in charge of 
General Armstrong, and probably at the two others, at Forest 
Grove for the western, and Carlisle for the eastern section. 
Such efforts, are in accordance with the dying suggestions of 
Brant to his nephew, " Have pity on the poor Indians ; if you 
can get any influence with the great, endeavor to do them all 
the good you can." 

His life by Colonel Stone, a work of singular interest, gives full 
detail of his career, in part early collected in his old neighbor- 
hood — a fine edition of it printed by the late Joel Munsell, 
of Albany, largely with his own hand, assists to cause the 
latter to be recalled by some collectors, as the Albany 
"Caxton." 

It is just to record a dissenting opinion as to the proper treat- 
ment of the remaining Aboriginees. It differs from those of 
Colonel Brisbane, and other regular officers who have served 
amongst them, and of some who have visited the border posts 
and studied the effect of the contact of races. Captain Payne 

to serve with the Indians during the Rebellion. Whereof Ji'h'i Butler, Esq., is 
Major Commandant. You are therefore carefully and diligently to dischaige the duty ' 
of captain by exercising and well disciplining both the Inferior Officers and Soldiers of 
that Corps, and I do hereby command them to obey you as their Captain, and you 
are to observe and follow such Orders and directions as you shall from Time to Time 
receive from me, your Major Commandant, or any other Superior Officer, according 
to the rules and discipline of War. In pursuance of the trust hereby reposed in you. 
Gi'ven under my hand and Seal at Arms, at ^luebec, this twentieth day of Decem- 
ber, 1777, and in the Eighteenth year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord, George 
the Third, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France and Ireland, King, 
Defender of the Faith, and so forth, Guy Carleton. 

By His Excellency's Command, Francis Le Maistrl. 

Walter Butler, Esq., Captain of a Corps of Rangers, to serve with the Indians 
during the Rebellion. 



in the Revolution, 67 

recently arrested by our troops when raiding in the Indian 
Territory, and affecting to be a humane man in his way, says : 

" Tell the Herald, that the policy of myself and fol- 
lowers is not to resist the government, so we came along 
with the troops when we were told to come. * * * * 
" There is a class of people who are eternally howling that 
they are afraid the white man may crowd the Indian. They 
are the people who sit in their houses, cut their coupons and 
read gush about the poor Indian. They don't want farms and 
a living, they have already got them and have no sympathy for 
those who are poor and want homes. They would rather see 
the poor man starve, than to have their picture of the noble 
redman chasing the wild gazelle over an eternal meadow with 
a babbling brook, destroyed." 

The writer must be aware that while the area of the Indian 
Territory is less than 69,000 square miles, that of Texas is 
274,356, large enough it would appear, for the accommodation 
ot the rights of the settler, and the native. That there is a 
vast area of land in the west and south-west, already open " to 
those who want farms." If any person desires to trace the 
origin and progress of such methods as he proposes, for 
securing the territory of the " noble red man," without 
consideration or equivalent, he can find them successively 
detailed in this " Life of Brant," and many other works referring 
to the same period. If such acquisitions are still indispensible 
to the progress of civilization, might we not devise a way of 
acquiring the territory consistent with its teachings, which would 
be more creditable in future history than that of involving 
constant collision and shedding of blood. 
9 



68 Tories or Loyalists 

Lord Sydney simply recognizes Johnson's official position, 
in fixing a temporary salary, which even with the difference 
in the value of money, would be a moderate compensation now 
for a subordinate civil officer. 



Whitehall, 20 August^ ^l^S' 
Sir: 

I am sorry that it is not in my power before your departure 
for Quebec, to acquaint you that some decision had taken place 
with respect to your salary as Superintendent of Indian Aff^airs. 
I hope that it will very shortly be fixed, in the meantime I am 
authorized to inform you that you may draw upon the Com- 
mander-in-chief in Canada, for the usual salarv of One Thousand 
pounds per annum, until you receive further direction from me. 
I flatter myself that I shall be able to write to you fully upon 
this subject by the next Packet that sails for Quebec, and you 
may be assured that no endeavour of mine will be wanting to 
obtain the augmentation of your salary which you desire, and 
place it upon a permanent footing, I have the honor to be, with 
regard, 

Sir, Your Most Obedient 

Humble Servant, 

Sydney/" 

Sir John Johnson, Bart. 



No British officer in service in the Revolution, would appear 
to have left America with more reciprocal hostile feeling than 
General Gage, the earliest commander of the King's Troops 
in that war. The certificate of his son has no interest, beyond 
a reference to his_ father's habit of business. 

f Hon. Thomas Townshend who on the dissolution of Lord North's ministry had 
become Lord Sydney. 



in the Revolution, 69 

General Gage's certificate to Sir John's Deputy. 

I certify that Colonel Guy Johnson took an active part in 
favour of the British Government from the first appearance of 
a Revolt in North America, that he did his duty as became a 
faithful Subject in his Department of Superintendent of Indian 
Nations and kept those Tribes in his Majestys Interest and 
defeated the Endeavors of the Rebels to alienate their affections 
from the King, and to induce them to appear in Arms against 
his Government. That he assembled a large Body of Indians 
and joined General Carlton in Canada. 

Thos Gage. 
Given under my hand this 2ist day of June 1785. 



.\4r. Chew" attorney for Sir John Johnson having applied to 
me for copies of the accounts which Sir Wm. Johnson Super 
Intendent for Indian Affairs transmitted to my father General ■ 
Gage deceased during his Commanding His Majestys Troops 
in America, and for copies of the Warrants he gave for the 
Payment thereof, I can only say that my fathers papers have 
not come immediately under my inspection or can I say posi- 
tively whether the copies of those Accounts and Warrants are 
with them, but am certain that it was a Rule with him to see 
accounts made clear and plain and when he gave Warrants for 
the Payment the Warrants were annexed to the Accounts and 
transmitted by him to the Pay Office in London where they 
now no doubt may be found. 

H. Gage.''^ 

Old Aboresford Nov. 16, 1787. 

To Mr. Chew, Attorney to Sir John Johnson. 

*i Captain Joseph Chew, a prisoner to the French when commanding a detachment 
reconnoitering 19 June, 1747. A legatee of 250 acres in Sir William Johnson's will, 
as his " much esteemed friend and old acquaintance " and father of his god son. 
Also one of the executors. 

■♦^ Henry Viscount Gage, retired Major of the 93 Regt. of Foot, a grandson of 
Peter Kemble of the Kings Council of New Jersey, also the ancestor of the late 
well esteemed Gouverneur Kemble, of New York. 



yo Tories or Loyalists 

Three of these jetsams of Time, suggest the continued ex- 
pense which Great Britain was incurring in the charge of her 
Indian population even in time of peace, and whether it was 
in consideration of their former service in war. 

Guy^ Lord Dorchester General and Commander-in-chief of his 
Majesty's Forces in North America. 

To Thomas Boone, Deputy Paymaster General, etc., War- 
rant to pay Sir John Johnson, etc., etc.. Nine Thousand pounds 
sterling in dollars at 4^. Sd'., each, for services of "persons em- 
ployed and sundry disbursements of the Department of Indian 
Affairs under his Superintendency between 25th Dec, 1786, 
and 24th March, 1787." 

Quebec, 9th November, 1786. 

Dorchester. 

To the Right Honorable Guy., Lord Dorchester., Cap: General and 
Governor-in- Chief of the Colonies of Quebec, Nova Scotia, Nevi 
Brunswick &' their Dependencies, Vice Admiral of the same 
General and Commander-in-Chief of all His Majestys Forces in 
Said Colonies & in the Island of Newfoundland &c &c. 

The Memorial of Sir John Johnson Baronet Superintendent 
General & Inspector General of Indian Affairs. 

Humbly Sheweth. That your Memorialist is in want of 
£4319 5^. Sd. sterling to enable him to pay Persons employed in 
the Department of Indian Affairs under his Superintendency 
between the 25 December 1786 and 24 December 1787 as per 
abstract ahnexed. We therefore pray your Excellencys Warrant 
on the Deputy Paymaster General for the above sum. 

John Johnson. 

Quebec 16 April, 1788. 

Another order by Lord Dorchester, in favor of Sir John 
as Superintendent and Inspector General of Indian Affairs, 
for Two Thousand pounds, for incidental expenses, between 
25th December, 1786, and 24th December, 1787. 



in the Revolution. 71 

Both signed by Dorchester and Captain Francis Le Maistre, 
the Governor's A. D. C. and Secretary and endorsed by Sir 
John Johnson. 

This doubtless to be used in a claim for indemnity, refers 
to a useful officer of the British Government in Canada during 
the Revolution. 
In the Exchequer In the matter of Sir John Johnson, Baronet, 

the legal personal representative of Sir 

(^ Stamp I William Johnson, Baronet, his late 

I J Father, deceased, late Superintendent of 

Indian Affairs in North America. 
Thomas Wallis, late Assistant in the office of the Secretary 
to the Commander-in-Chief in North America, now of Hertford 
street, Mayfair, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, 
maketh oath and saith, that he has known General Sir Frederick 
Haldimand for fourteen years and that the words and figures 
"London the 14th of August, 1787," and the name *' Fred 
Haldimand " aj pearing to be written and subscribed at the foot 
of the account and certificate marked with the letter X now 
produced, are the proper handwriting of the said General Sir 
Fred Haldimand,^ and were written and subscribed by him in 
the presence of this deponent, and the said General Sir Fred 
Haldimand after he had so subscribed the same, dehvered the 
said produced account and certificate to this deponent, and 
directed him to deliver the same to Mr. Chew, attorney to the 
said Sir William Johnson. Thos. Wallis. 

Sworn at my house in St. John street \ 
the nth April, 1788, before me. j 

J. A. Eyre. 

Sir John here appears in a civil office usually awarded in 
British Colonies, as a mark of especial consideration. 

43 Born and died at Switzerland, at first in Prussian service, but entered the Eng- 
lish with Col. Bouquet. Came to America as Lt. Col. 60 Royal American Regt. in 
I7C7; distinguished at Ticonderoga in 1750; defended Oswego in_i759 5 ^'.^h 
Amherst at Montreal in 1760; as Colonel at Pensacola 1767 ; home mtorm.ng mm- 
istry as to Colonies in 1775 ; b xk as Lieut. General in 1776; succeeded Carleton as 
Gov. of Canada in 1778 and until 1784; died m 1791. 



72 Tories or Loyalists 

Quebec, i May^ ^7^7- 
Received from Henry Caldwell, Esq., Acting Receiver 
General of the Province of Quebec the sum of Fifty Pounds 
Sterling, being for my Salary as a Member of the Legislative 
Council of the Province, from ist November, 1786, to 30 
April, 1787, pursuant to his Excellency, Governor Lord 
Dorchester's w^arrant dated ist May 1787, for which I have 
signed Two Receipts of this Tenor and Date. 
£50 Sterling. John Johnson. 

Apparently a moderate compensation compared with that of 
later law-makers, and especially well earned if the quality of 
legislation was equivalent to its quantity. In this it would 
markedly differ from much that has been condensed into portly 
volumes as the brain food offered by tlie deliberative wisdom of 
other bodies when sitting for a similar period. Perhaps he 
divined how much easier it is to enact, than in all cases to 
comprehend. How doubtful the intention of the law maker often 
proves to others, and how much special legislation is rendered 
unnecessary by general acts, if sought for. He doubtless dis- 
covered, as many legislators have, that there were more debaters 
than listeners, more movers than seconders, and that it is easier 
to criticise than to originate. 

The remaining letter borrowed from a friend's exhaustive 
collection of Americana merely displays neighborly kindness 
to one who sympathised in sentiment and destiny, by taking 
refuge from imprisonment for political offences in Canada with 
the writer. 

Dr Sir Johnsons Hall 25 July 1775. 

The bearer will deliver you some provisions & clothes and 
Mr Clement will give you a paper containing a Ten pound note 
which I received from Mrs White this morning. The Indians 
having desired some cash from me to expend when they come 



in the Revolution, 73 

amongst the inhabitants in Canada, which I have not to give 
them I must beg you will supply them & charge it to Colonel 
Johnson. If you have forgot anything and I can be of service 
to you I beg you'll mention it. God bless you. 

To Alexander White Esq. Yrs J. Johnson.-w 

These random notes as to the Johnsons suggest reflections as 
to the quality of loyalty, even in an adversary, to one whose 
sympathies, studies and collections, have for years been de- 
voted to appreciative illustration of the achievements of their 
opponents and a jealous watchfulness to their use. Although 
sketched from a different standpoint, he trusts that his conclu- 
sions will accord with those which a friend is preparing under 
different inspirations, at a point too remote for comparison. 
The absence of Memoirs, Diaries,''^ and even of comprehensive 
letters on these details is to be regretted. 

44 Thh and one other letter belonging to Dr. Thomas Addis Emmett, all of the other 
letters and papers in that of the contributor. As to Sheriff White and the circum- 
stances under which it was written, vide Stone's " Life of Brant," Vol. I, pp. 
101-6-7-12, 364. 

45 There appears to be a resemblance — probably often noticed by others, between 
the useful oyster fisher, who delves with his rake into the muddy bottom, for the 
bivalve and the less widely appreciated labor of one who dives for costly pearls in 
the turbid waters of forgotten fact. 

Many amateur Collectors of fragmentary history are scattered over the country 
purchasing and articulating disjointed material, and quietly working with the devotion 
voluntarily displayed by Old Mortality in h'n specialty of restoring the dilapidated 
tombstones of people he had never seen. No writer on American History has eluci- 
dated more epitaphs of the humbler patriots, than Dr. Lossing, whose "Field Books" 
are in effect. Biographical Lexicons. 

Another instance of a renaissance of valuable historical waifs, germain to 
the naTie of Burgoyne, elsewhere referred to, as connected with one associated 
with his career once as his fellow soldier, then his conqueror, and styled 
by him his " Accoucheur ! " A large portion of the military papers, and order 
books of General Gates, after slumbering in his muniment box for over threescore 
years, had recently a new birth, in falling into the remarkable Emmet Collection. 

A part of them through the active enterprise of Mr. John Austin Stevens, were 
used to add value of the word "Resurgam " by their publication in the October, 
1880 — Gates — number of the "Magazine of American History." They 
arise to dispel many errors, disseminated in American History. They show, 
that after his probably ill-advised advance at Camden, when driven from a remote 
part of the field by the precipitate flight of the North Carolina militia — con- 



y^ Tories or Loyalists 

Without these evidences, many, intending to leave an honor- 
able record, will always go down to posterity as responsible 
from their position, in political or military life, for action of their 
associates, which they personally abhorred, perhaps opposed, in 
its progress, or at worst finally submitted to, from fear of 
retaliation, on some proper object. 

Samuel Pepys, who recorded in his Diary with the ex- 
periences of an unimportant life, much random fact, some of 
which subsequently become of historical interest, is now being 
recalled — two centuries later — by the erection of a Memorial 
in London, in the place where he worshipped and rests. It would 
have been interesting if Johnson himself, or some Pepysian an- 
notator of events, sharing his confidence and his tent or home, 
had jotted down the circumstances attending his arrest, parole, 

fronted by well drilled regulars — ignorant by this separation, of the stand de Kalb 
was making, with the gallant Maryland and Delaware line and a few militia, having 
the benefit of their near example, that he, with General Caswell and other officers, 
struggled for many miles to rally them, so " flying " with them before the pursuing 
enemy, in an effort to bring them back. That instead of his " hair growing grey as 
he fled," in his letter to the President of Congress, Hillsborough, 20th August, 1780, 
he says, "By this time the militia had taken to the woods in all directions, and I 
concluded svith General Caswell, to retire towards Charlotte, 1 got there late in the 
night — but reflecting that there was neither arms, ammunition, nor any prospect of 
collecting any Force at that Place, adequate to the defence of the Country — I pro- 
ceeded with all possible despatch hither ; to endeavour to fall upon some plan, in 
conjunction with the Legislature of this State, for the defence of so much thereof 
as it is yet possible, to save from the enemy." Whatever the error in his strategy 
may have been — and it is always easier to criticize than to plan, his course from his 
arrival seems by many letters energetic, and that of one intent on developing 
order out of chaos. While m-ortified with the condition into which he had fallen, he 
does not appear to have lost heart or hope, and continuea his exertions apparently 
conscious that his prestige as a soldier was lost, until he wai superceded by General 
Greene, who reaped a harvest of laurels on the ground on which his own crop had 
been bligl^ted. 

A recently printed sketch of Colonel Anthony Walton White — who com- 
manded, with Col. Lee, detachments of Continental Cavalry lying near, and only 
waiting for their horses Co have filled a special want at Camden, and whose equip- 
ment appears to have been a cause of special anxiety to General Gates — published 
w:th a fine military portrait by Sharpies, and prepared under the direction of his grand- 
son, Mr. Evans, is another interesting renaissance. 



in the Revolution. 75 

and its claimed infringement or whether he considered it violated 
and withdrawn by the attempted arrest -, and also if at Klocks 
Farm he left the field unwounded, deserting a command with 
which he evidently displayed marked courage, in the contest 
of the day. As to the facts connected with the parole, careful 
consideration even in the absence of such evidence, would 
doubtless now convince any fair opponent, that the judgment 
of some history has been biased, by the then obnoxious position 
of the actor. 

It was exacted, by a display of force, from one who although 
holding a Major General's commission, had committed no 
overt act of hostility against the de facto government, existing 
when he was arrested by the order of the - Provincial Con- 
gress " of the State, and the - Albany Committee " bodies, 

In the field of early southern history there is probably no amateur -amongst the 
many who are quietly interested in similar labor - who has more hberally con- 
tTuted valuable priJately printed facts than Colonel C^-^- ^, J^J'^^'g^/ J,' 
Augusta. His "Siege of Savannah in 1779," ^"d another ol that of '864, are 
amongst his valuable works. While the humane admnMStrat.on of Ge"-^ Ogel- 
"orpe, the remarkable character who founded Georg.a has been largely recalled by 
his pen : his « Historical Sketches of Tomo-chi-chi, the M>co of the Yamacraws _ 
an important factor in American History in his period, but whose name now would 
JeouTre a special introduction even to many general readers - affords test.mony, based 
on information, of the merit of another Abongmal ruler 

The correspondence of General Daniel Morgan, the hero ot Cowpens, mclud.ng 
much of Washington, and Lifayette especially his friend, havmg fallen .nto the writer s 
Collection, in a manner very satisfactory to his family, an opportunity was soon 
availed of to use it in recalling his usefulness. Happenmg to rece.ve an mvtat.on 
ftom Mayor Courtenay-a zealous appreciator and collector of Charleston H.stoncal 
Relics which he liberally restores to their appropriate form and place-and a comm.ttee 
ofXers and citizens to be present at the centennial celebration ot that battle, the key 
to Yorktown, it appeared that he would be best represented, by contnbutmg copies 
of all of the official papers connected with that event. They were recognized, as an 
articulate apparition or the many writers amidst t^^" =-"" ° V ^'^ S'"" oTrT: 
by the posterity of mary of them ; filled much of the " Charleston News of the 
day with hcal,\i old, intelligence, and have taken one hundred new chances of pre- 
servation in a privately printed brochure, neatly prepared by Captam Dawson one of its 
editors, who sympathizes in the past, while acfive in his present. These are re- 
ferred [o here, merely as instances of the value of the preservation, and the recurrence 
of appropriate opportunity to perform an easy duty. 

10 



76 Tories or Loyalists 

created by an uprising of an indignant people, and six months 
after that incident occurred, formed by the Declaration of In- 
dependence into part of a nation de jure. 

If it had been executed after that period, doubtless the sense 
of obligation would have been stronger upon a soldier, but at 
the time the authority of Great Britain controlled a large por- 
tion of the Colonies — restive ^under its restraint — and its 
local authorities vi^ere in power at New York, as in Canada, 
still recognized as the only lawful rulers by a large portion of 
the people. 

To a person representing large interests, and the head of a 
family, this interregnum must have been a period for anxiety, 
and adhering to the old government, made him a subject for 
suspicion and dislike, to those who had so aggregated for the as- 
sertion of grievances, still hoping for concessions to justify their 
dissolution, but preparing if necessary, in the impending struggle 
to establish their permanency. To this administration of public 
affairs, not yet made permanent by the r;ction of Congress on 
the 4th of the ensuing July, he had refused to give his ad- 
hesion, to sign the articles of association, or to recognize its au- 
thority, declaring that he would "rather that his head should 
be cut off," than unite in a conflict with his native government, 
the authority of which he doubtless hoped would be soon re- 
asserted. In this, he became an obstacle to the popular 
movement, and was from his influence and authority, a subject 
for supression or control. His every movement was watched 
and discussed, and it was claimed that he was fortifying his 
house, organizing his retainers, and co-operating with the 
Indians for resistance, yet there is no clear evidence that he 



in the Revolution. 77 

pursued any course unusual to his position as a citizen and a 
maffistrate, in troubled times. 

But his presence was esteemed a danger in itself and his 
removal a necessity which knew no law. General Schuyler 
arrested him, with a large, unresisted military force, in 
January, 1776; he was sent to Fishkill and submitted to a 
parole, not to bear arms against the de facto authority which 
exacted it, or to leave the vicinity of his home. It is probable 
that he sought in this an opportunity to arrange his affairs, until 
either concession or suppression restored the authority of his 
government. For some causes, probably the continued suspicion 
of danger from his private communications, his capture and con- 
finement, which would have naturally terminated his protection 
and the mutuality of his parole was decided upon, and Colonel 
Dayton stopped at the Hall, on his way to Canada, to make 
his arrest, but found that Johnson, advised of his coming, had 
escaped into Canada, the nearest accessible stronghold of the 
authority he recognized. His endurance of nineteen days of 
terrible suffering in this, his winter journev through the Adi- 
rondacks, attested his physical courage; and the leaving all he 
valued behind him, subordinate to a sense of duty, his 
remarkable loyalty. The romantic incidents attending Lady 
Johnson's share in her husband's downfall, will doubtless be 
appropriately given by her kinsman. He cannot fail to show, 
that her married life justified the promise which Colonel 
Guy Johnson discerned before that event, when meeting her 
while in New York as described in the accompanying letter. 
( Appendix A. ) 

Such a parole enforced on a citizen by an as yet temporarily 
constituted and semi-representative body, and the knowledge 



yS Tories or Loyalists 

that it was to be substituted by imprisonment, from precaution 
and not for crime, would appear to differ materially from one 
exacted after conquest in the field, and that its essence was 
in the application of Major Dugald Dalgetty's maxim, '•'■fides 
et fiducia relativa sunt.'''' 

Many expert military critics have considered the question of 
the obligations of paroles, with varied latitude. Some have pro- 
nounced this one no longer obligatory on a prisoner, who was 
aware of its intended breach by the giver, and that the law of 
nature overrode the dictates of a nice sense of honor — best 
appreciated in another — and an escape after warning of the 
intention of the withdrawal of protection was as justifiable 
before, as after its execution. 

But there is a precedent apparently applicable, which illus- 
trates the difference of sympathy from surroundings, and how 
the same claimed offence is viewed by the friends or enemies 
of the actor. Those who have remembered the blame which 
has attached to Sir John, should examine the different sentiments 
called forth for one who suffered for what he alone was censured. 
This parallel case, was that of Colonel Isaac Hayne,* a promi- 
nent patriot in South Carolina. He had served in the defence 
of Charleston, with the cavalry operating outside of the city, 
but not included in the capitulation. Afterwards he considered 
that the protection of his family residing on the Edisto, required 
that he should accept a parole from the captors, only obtained, 
by signing with a protest as to service, the oath of allegiance, 
prescribed by Sir Henry Clinton's proclamations. 

This exposed him to the annoyance of frequent calls/or his 
service as a soldier, due by that obligation to the King, and 
when Gen. Greene advanced in 1781, considering the British 

* See Ramsey's Revolution in S. C, Vol. ii, p. 277, etc. 



in the Revolution. 79 

control ended, he again took the field, was captured, tried, and 
executed, by Lord Rawdon, at the instigation of Col. Nesbit 
Balfour, the commandant, recalled there still as a tyrant. The 
whole country was filled with denunciation of this cruelty. 
The Duke of Richmond censured it in Parliament and Balfour 
was rendered notable for his unfeeling disregard to the appeal 
of his family and friends for mercy, while the name of Hayne 
is remembered, by collectors of American History, as a martyr 
to a popular and successful cause. Had Sir John been cap- 
tured in either of his bold invasions, made additionally perilous 
by that impending charge, he might have suffered, even by the 
influence of his exasperated neighbors, from whom he had 
parted with mutual antipathy. His daring on such other occa- 
sions, discredits the tradition of his flight, unv/ounded, in 
advance of his command, at Klocks Field, and makes it seem an 
instance of misrepresentation unanswered, and accepted by 
credulous History as the gift of irresponsible tradition. 

It is notable that the " Annals of Tryon County," which 
William W. Campbell, an estimable gentleman and painstaking 
collector, residing at Cherry Valley, prepared many vears ago,* 
in connection with a society formed at that place for the col- 
lection of Local History, in describing the battle, and alluding 
to the bravery of Johnson's troops, omits this sudden departure 
which must have reached him there in rumor, rejected as fact. 

The tradition of his flight from Klocks Field without refer- 
ring to his disabled condition, perhaps arose with exasperated 
neighbors while suffering from his undoubtedly vindictive 
ravages, whose patriotism was naturally stimulated bv the 
possession of his abandoned property, and from whom any 
sympathy would be as unnatural as that of the huntsman for a 

* Border Warfare of New York and Annals, etc., 1849. 



8o Tories or Loyalists 

wounded stag, which had ceased to stand at bay. That his 
accepted government appreciated the audacity of his three 
incursions, and subsequently repeatedly honored him with 
commands and places of trust, proves at least their continued 
confidence in his courage and honor. That any of these 
questions should remain open for discussion, more than a cen- 
tury afterwards sustains the views elsewhere expressed, of the 
untold value of impartial and carefully prepared cotemporary 
history. 

In any event he had opportunity to regret in a long life of 
exile, the beautiful home which he had lost by the rigor with 
which his native State adhered to its rule of confiscation. He 
resided afterwards in Canada, and is still represented by many 
distinguished descendants. When he died he afix)rded to pos- 
terity an opportunity to consider that best test for judgment of 
the action of another *•' put yourself in his place." 

Although prompted by a sense of the justice of availing of 
the opportunity to say a word in defence of those whose records 
have left their names unpopular, the writer is satisfied that 
their vindication has been delayed too long to influence some 
whose opinions are hereditary, and have never been modified 
by the softening eff^ects of research. ^^ 

One who has given his attention to historical collections, 
and has completed series of the letters of the Signers, the 
Generals, and the prominent actors of the Colonial and Revo- 
lutionary periods, has naturally sought for information as to 
their inner, as well as their printed lives, and incidentally as to 

'■^ It appears proper to say that these sentiments, — not influenced by any personal 
considerations, — are somewhat contrary to the writer's earlier and more crude 
convictions, derived from^ antecedents, in that period, and from the early settlement 
of New York, identified with the popular cause, and often then and since by succes- 
sion, under the union of the States, aiding — sometimes effectively — in its civil 
service, and in every war. 



in the Revolution, 8i 

those of their cotemporaries, and of the circumstances which 
governed all of them. 

This naturally inspires a comparison with the more familiar 
ones of their successors, and of their relative administration 
of public trust. It may even induce a conjecture as to the 
result — if it were possible to make the experiment — of placing 
the members of the Congress of 1776, in the seats of a few of 
its recent representatives. The alternative, by a substitution of 
many of our present for those past law-makers, would give occu- 
pation for a stronger imagination, in realizing the uses of the 
modern appliances of legislation in those time-honored chairs. 

Were such transpositions of men of the present for those of 
that important crisis possible, might it not be less difficult, even 
after a century of brilliant national prosperity, affording oppor- 
tunities to individuals which few then enjoyed, and a condensa- 
tion of events which no other nation has probably ever witnessed 
in a similar period, to select a substitute for Sir John Johnson, 
were he all that vague tradition and prejudice has pictured him 
to be, using every appliance that he is said to have resorted to 
in seeking to claim an inheritance of which he felt himself 
unjustly deprived, than to discover a second Washington, de- 
ferring compensation, neglecting, in his negation of self, his 
own ample estate, to battle to secure the property of others, 
subjecting himself to the jealousy of those" who coveted his 
honors, but not the cares and exposure'^7 which earned them, 

47 To His Excellency, George Washington, £s(i., General, &c., 

Sir : T-. • J 

Whereas, David Matthews, Esq., stands charged with dangerous Designs and 
treasonable Conspiracies against the Rights and Liberties of the United Colonies of 
America. We do, in Pursuance of a certain Resolve of Congress of this Colony 
of the twentieth day of [une, instant, authorize and request you to cause the said 
David iMatthews to be with all his papers forthwith apprehended and secured, and 



82 Tories or Loyalists 

devoting his manhood to his country, and finally epitomising 
his life, as an example to the temporarily refractory troops at 
Newburg, by saying — when compelled to resort to his glasses 
in deciphering his conclusive appeal to their patriotism and 
endurance — " You see gentlemen, that I have not only grpwn 
gray, but blind, in your service." 

To write the name of Washington is a temptation to the 
digression of an American pen, even when proposing to speak 
more specially of those whom he conquered, and only incident- 
ally of the victors. 

Collectors of unprinted Historical Material — often classed 
as Autographs — were long accustomed to attach some im- 
portance, in discerning the character and surroundings of the 
writer, both to his manner of expression, and his chirography. 
This theory has been sustained by many able authorities, includ- 
ing Dr. Joseph G. Cogswell, formerly of the Astor Librarv. 

that returns be made to us of the manner in which this Warrant shall be executed in 
order that the same may be made known to the said Congress. 
Given under our hands this twenty-first day of June, 1776. Philip Livingston, 

John Jay, 
Gov. Morris. 

General Greene is desired to have the within Warrant executed with precision 
and exactness, by one o'clock the ensuing morning, by a careful officer. 

pRinAY Afternoon, June 20, 1776. G. Washington. 

Long Island, June 22d, 1776. 

In obedience to the within Order and Warrant, I sent a Detachment of my Brigade 
under the Command of Col. Vernon, to the house of the within named David Matthews, 
Esq., at Flat Bush, who surrounded his house and seized his person precisely at the 
hour of one this mori^ng. After having made him a Prisoner, diligent search was 
made after his Papers but none could be found, notwithstanding great care was 
taken that none of the Family should have the least opportunity to icnujve or 
destroy them. Nathaniel Greene. 

This Paper, if earlier discovered, should have been appropriate additiimal 
material for " Minutes of the Trial and Examination of Certain Persons in 
the Province of New York, charged with being Engaged in a Conspiracy against 
the Authority of the Congress and the Liberties of America." Printed in London, by 
I. Bew, in 1786, and reprinted in an edition of one hundred copies, entitled "Minutes 
of Conspiracy against the Liberties of America," by fohn Campbell, in Philadelphia, 
1865, describing the details of " the Hickey Plot" for the poisoning of Washington, 



in the Revolution, 



83 



Any even fancied value in this belief, is becoming obsolete 
as applicable to later correspondence, in an unprecedented 
progress, crowding the events of life, and increasing the value 
of the hour. Rapidity of thought and action, now conveyed 
upon paper involves brevity, curtails compliment, and disregards 
form. 

In the day when magazines were scarcely known, news- 
papers were small and rare, devoted principally to advertise- 
ments, with current events condensed, and even discussion by 
tracts occasional ; a letter, as a comprehensive means of com- 
munication, was an important channel of intelligence. Its 
dignified foolscap, or " letter size ; " emblazoned with water 
line, and adorned by a gilt edge, was covered by a carefully 
selected " quill," with at least three pages of public or private 

by that man, one of his Life Guards, who was executed. Governor Tryon, who was 
quartered on the Duchess of Gordon, a vessel lying in the harbor — and singularly 
named after the lady whom Gen. Staats Long Morris, the loyalist member of a 
patriot family, married — was supposed to be the instigator; the medium was David 
Matthews, the Mayor, who admitted supplying money at least, for arms, and who 
was sentenced to death, but reprieved and sent to Connecticut, from whence he 
escaped ; the method to poison Washington with green peas which were provided, 
and on being tested on some poultry, proved fatal ; and the result to be a rising in 
arms, in case of success. It was detected by the disclosure made through his house- 
keeper, the daughter of Samuel Frances, the innkeeper at the corner of Broad and 
Pearl, where Washington afterwards bid adieu to his officers. The seat of the 
conspiracy, was Cortie tavern, between ''Richmond Hill," "Bayard's Woods," and 
" Lispenard's meadow," near the now intersection of Spring and Woosrer streets. 
This order of arrest was issued on the next day, only three days before Lord Howe's 
arrival, soon followed by the Battle of Long Island, the retreat of Washington, and the 
British occupation of the city, attended by the confusion in which, Matthews probably 
escaped. A trifling circumstance, the careful erasing of a word with a penknife 
over which the word "within," is written in Washington's endorsement, displays the 
coolness and method in writing referred to, even at a moment when his life was beset 
by assassins. The other papers above alluded to as printed, were those of the Secretary 
of the Committee of Congress signing this order for arrest. The accompanying letter is 
from Richar.j Cumberland, the well known essayist and author of many plays and 
brochures, a retired Secretary of the Board of Trade, and apparently, from the 
contents of a number of letters from which it is selected, an attache and purveyor 
of Lord George Germain, State Secretary, is addressed to William Woodfall, before the 
public at this period, and prosecuted by the Crown as the publisher of the " Lettcrt 

11 



84 Tories or Loyalists 

intelligence, conveyed in well formed characters, with dignified 
assurances of consideration and respect. It was generally closed 
with wax, and impressed with the seal, which then dangled 
from the writer's " fob," all in such form as to make it pre- 
sentable to a frieiid, or to a neighborhood, according to its 
privacy or public import. Then conveyed in a " mastship " 
or packet, in a lumbering " stage-wagon," or by a private ex- 
press, its receipt was a sensation, and it was generally preserved 
as an object of value, often to arise years afterwards, permanent 
from its solid material, and perhaps to find new appreciation in 
a historical collection, to solve a doubt, or suggest an inquiry. 

Rare papers like rare paintings still command competition, 
showing continued appreciation. ( Appendix E. ) 

Such was the "golden age" of the collectors only recently 
terminated by the Telegraph, where each word has a cost as 
well as a value ; the Postal Card, commanding condensation and 

of Junius." He has an equally surviving recollection, as associated with the original 
Mr. Walter, of the London Times, in experiments in printing by steam. 

Sjr . Drayton, Tuesday Morning, 

Since I wrote to you and enclosed ye Boston Ga%ette, a messenger is arrived with ye 
news of ye reduction of forts Washington and Lee, and with despatches from ye Gen- 
eral which I make do doubt occasioned the publishing of an Extra Gazette last 
night. This intelligence would have been brought us to town directly, if Lord 
George hid not been indisposed with a cold and swelled face, so that we shall not be 
in town till Friday morning. Anything in my power to communicate to you shall 
readily be done, and I am very sorry that my distance makes it not practicable by 
this opportunity. Ye loyal Mayor of New York has made his escape from Litchfield 
and returned to that City. He reports the situation of the people in Connecticut to 
be that of men heartily weary of their cause and its conductors.- That the hospitals 
are miserably attended and served, where great numbers are lost for want of 
common care. That there are small, or no hopes, of another Army being raised, 
the eyes of the common people being generally open to their situation. That a 
sovereign contempt for their officers prevails universally, that they say Lee (Gen. 
Charles) will not engage for fear of being taken and hanged and that ye fame and 
popularity of Gen. Washington is greatly gone down. 

Many particulars may occur worthy the public notice when I return to town and 
get my letters, &c. I am. Sir, 

Your Most Obedient Ser'vt, 
Mr. William Woodfall. R. Cumberland. 












:^^ .1?^^:^ ' ^^?^^^2^^.c^ 



v»^ 



rHC ORIGINAL IN THt COLLECTION Or T s «■ 



in the Revolution, 85 

disclaiming privacy, and the Monograph, with such Napoleonic 
terseness and brief detail as is necessary to intelligibility with 
little regard to form. These last appliances tended in our recent 
war, to condense such full narratives of action as had been usual 
in the past, leaving it to the comprehensive and indispensable 
newspapers, published in keeping with the progress of the age, 
and to their correspondents to form the public sentiment of its 
course and results as they appeared to them. It remains for the 
government to perfect its history, by instituting a careful analysis 
of such narrative, and by the use of the public records, the 
last of which is believed to be now in progress, and if so 
will correct many errors, known to have often unavoidably crept 
into more hastily prepared impressions. 

At the period now referred to, such notable persons in its 
history as Washington, Sir Henry Clinton, Greene, Cornwallis, 
and Gates — when dispensing with the services of aid or 
secretary — and, in fact, all educated persons, from sovereign 
to citizen, found time to convey their thoughts in letters 
thus carefully expressed and gracefully executed, as though to 
combine in both contents and form, a courtesy to the person ad- 
dressed, and to suggest if not to prove, that the writer was, as a 
'* gentleman of the old school," at least " toall polite." Perhaps, 
letters of this period which are preserved, commend in their 
ensemble this style, which is necessarily passing away from the 
causes referred to. 

At least it recalls its recollection with respect, to say that it 
everywhere characterizes the manner of communicating the 
plainest sentiments by Washington ! The large number of his 
letters, still carefully preserved, show his industry ; while their 
existence witnesses the cotemporary appreciation of one who 



86 Tories or Loyalists 

used *' not dim enigmas doubtful to discern, " but expressed 
himself in " simple truths that every man may learn."* How 
so prominent a chiiracter, overwhelmed with active duties, often 
in temporary quarters and with few conveniences — but always 
with assistants about him to perform the manual part of the 
work — should largely from preference, with his own hand find 
opportunity to correspond with the Government, its members, 
governors of States, his generals and officers of every grade, his 
family and personal friends, the representatives of foreign govern- 
ments and interests, even with citizens scarcely known to him — 
but alive to the value of their own wants or suggestions — all 
with courtesy, uniformity, and neatness, is as remarkable as the 
variety of the topics and the smallness of the material for sub- 
sequent criticism. 

These letters collected would seem manually the work of a 
clerkly copyist rather than originals, the brain and hand work of 
the founder of a great nation, simply recording, even while 
creating, much of its history, amidst conflict and doubt. iVIany 
of these have found their place in print, all might be condensed 
with advantage, into a sort of complete letter writer for the use 
of schools. 

With a character naturally strong, developed by a capable and 
devoted mother, an ordinary education and the adventurous 
experience of his youth, Washington is marked, by a course of 
life, ever leading upward and onward. While largely controlling 
the country he bad helped so materially to create, he was readj 
to entertain and use what he considered adaptable to present 
circumstances, from the experience of wise men of all periods, 
refined in the crucible of his own broad common sense, 

* Applied from an early poem of William Allen Butler. 



in the Revolution. 87 

Even his conclusions, enforced by such admitted and suc- 
cessful experience, were not always accepted. He had passed 
to power through triumphal arches raised by a nation's grati- 
tude, to hold it with a people, and even his cabinet, divided 
as to his policy •, and to resign it, and return like Cincinnatus 
to his plough, with an expressed sense of relief. If so living 
now, he would be rewarded by the universal thanks ot those 
familiar with his name and service^ which did not tuUy attend 
him, when two factions disputed over his policy, and many 
beset him from interest or for place. The highest popularity 
not spasmodic, attending all great men burthened with power 
and patronage in life, may be claimed to attach to their memory, 
after they are dead. 

If this be so, his parting words when surrendering his highest 
and final authority — and which probably combined with his 
own judgment that of others'*^ whom his confidence in itself 
proved also worthy of lasting attention — cannot, it would 
seem, be too often recalled as embodying past experience, with 
a far seeing warning for the future, increasing in value as it 
addresses a larger auditory. 

At least an annual public reading of that Farewell Address, 
with that of the Declaration of Independence — to the fulfill- 
ment of the purposes of which it applies — and their study also 
in our schools, would appear to be necessary instruction to all 
who may aspire to public place. They show the birth and 
early progress of the Freedom they are expected to preserve. 
Some have always referred to them as opening truths which are 
already new to millions of unfamiliar ears. Those more accus- 
tomed to such teachings — could console themselves, if present, 
with the adage, " a good thing is worth repeating. " In them 

48 To Hamilton, Jay, Jefferson and Madison some of its inspirations were due. 



88 Tories or Loyalists 

every elector once familiar with their spirit would observe, that 
in traveling too rapidly in an engrossing present, we may leave 
behind such less recent but indispensible companions in our 
country's progress, to follow newer and sometimes falser lights. 

By such constant recurrence to the grievances the latter re- 
counts against the British Government, each hearer could 
discover what was renounced by the founders, and whether by 
any subsequent legislation, we have voluntarily subjected our- 
selves to any similar burthens. 

With this conviction the accompanying, taken from a very 
rare cotemporary certified copy of the Declaration, more 
interesting since the damage to the original in its transfer, is 
inserted. 

The Declaration of Independence, appears in effect an ably 
drawn and dignified recital of grievances imposed by Parliament, 
and which had become intolerable to a people growing in in- 
telligence and importance. Its incisive tone, and confident 
assertion, were well calculated to reach an auditory of various 
interests scattered in thirteen colonies, differing in population, 
antecedents and interests, and to arouse them to concerted action. 

It rejects the further control of the makers of existing laws, 
while it suggests no substitution of better ones, evidently with 
the intention of leaving that duty, with the details of Con- 
federate action, to the future representatives of a free people. 
Its value would appear to be in the position it asserted at a 
time when the hope of success appeared dark, and in recording 
the opinion of its patriot founders as to what were then held to 



In congress, July 4, 1776. 
the unanimous 
DECLARATION 

OF THE 

Thirteen United States of AMERICA. 



WHEN, in the Courre of human Events, it beconr^s nccefiary for one 
People 10 diflblvc ihe Poliiical Band) which have conneaeJ them with 
anciiher, and Co aOume, among the Poi.en ot the Earth, the lepatare 
and equal Station to "hich the Laws of Nature and of Nature'f GOD 
entitle '.hero, a deKnt Hcfpeft to the Opinion! of Mankind requiiej 
that they Diould de>:!aie the Caofes which impel them to the Separation. 

We iioldthefe TrUthi to be fell-evident, that all Men ate created equal, that theji are 
endowed, by their Cr!E»TOK, with certain unalienable Right!, that among thefe ate Lite, 
Libetty. and the Purluii ot Happineft.— That to fecure thefe R.ghts, Governments are 
inflituted among Men, deriving their jull Powers from the Confent of the Governed, that 
whenever any Form of Government becomes defltuAive of thefe Ends, \t is the Right of 
the People to .Iter or to abolilh it, and to inllit.ue new Government, laying its Foun- 
datioo on fuch Principles and organiaing its Power! m fuch Form, as to them Ihall feem 
moft likely to elfiift their Safety and Happinefs. Prudence, indeed, will di.fale, that 
Governments long eltablilhed, Ihould not be changed for light and tranlient Caufes •, ard 
•ccotdioBly all Experience hath Ihewn, that Mankind ate more difpofed to lufFcr, while 
Evils are fuSerable, than to right themfelves by abolifhing the Forms to which they are 
accunomed. But when a long Train ol Abules and Ufurpations purfuing iniuriably 
the fame Obieft, evinces a Defigo ;o reduce them under abfolute Defpotifm, it is their 
Rioht it is theit Duty, to throw ofT inch Government and to providi: new Guards for 
.h^r f«we Secumv. Such has been ihi patient Sufff nee of thc^lonies •, and fuch 
is now the Neceffity which Lonftrains them to aner their lorma 9 /flL w.. nl C^iemmeDt. 
The Hillory of the prelent King of Gtea.-Briiain is a Hiliory of repealed ln|ories ano 
Ufurpations, all having in direft Objccf ne iiftablifhmen. of an abfolute Tyranny over 
thefe Stales. To [itove this, let Fadts '. fubmitted to a candid « orld. 

He ha! lefuled his AOent to Laws, the moft wholefome and necelTa'y for the public 

*'°He ha- forbidden his Governors to p.ifs Laws of immediate and ptelTing Importance, 
unlefs lufpended in their Operation till his AfTent Ihould be obtained i and when fo fuf- 
fiended he ha! utterly neolcfled to attend to them. 

He has relufcd to pifs other Laws for the Accommodation of large Diftrias ol People, 
unlefs thofe People would relinquilli the Right of Reprelentalion in the LeglQature, a 
BiElu ineftimable to .hem, and formidable to ryranl! only. r „ j 

He has called losether Legillalive Bodies at Places unulual. uncomfortable, and 
diftant from the Depofrlory oi their public Records, for the fole Purpole of fatiguing 
them into Compliance with his Mcafures. ... _. 

He hasdilTolved Reotefentative Houfes repeatedly, for oppoUog with manly Firmnefs 
MsInvanonsontheRigi.tsofthe People. ■. i a j 

He has refufed for a long Time, alter fuch DifTMutions, to caufe others to be ekaed , 
vnhcrebv the Legiru-.ive Puwers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People 
at large for their e.ercife •, theState remaining, in the mean Time.expofed to all the Dan- 
cers ol InvaOon from without, and Convulfions within. , . „ , . 

He has endeavoured to prevent the Population of ihele States ; for that Purpofe ob- 
BruSins! l.ie Laws for Naturalization ol Foreigners ; tefuling to pafs other! to encourage 
their Migrations hither, and ralfing the Conditions of new Appropriations of Lands. 

He hasobftruftedihe Adm-.jiiflrationol Julfice, by lelufing h.s AlTent to Laws for 

"*H'fhafmadfjudg«"dV^ndent on his Will alone, for the Tenure ol their OfEces, 

'"Ht'ha3"crBaeda Multitude of new Offices, and tent hither Swarros of Officers to hlr- 
rafs our People, and eat out their Subllance. „ ,. . . . . . „ , 

He has kept among us, in Times of Peace, Standing Armies, without the Confent 

" He haf affea'ed to render the Military independent ol and fuperior to the Civil Power. 
He has combined with others to fubjea us to a Juiildiaion foreign to our Confliiuiioo, 



and unacknowledged by our Laws j giving his AfTent to their Aas of pretended Legif- 
lation : 

For quartering large Bodies ol Armed Troops among us : 

Fob proteaing them, by a mork Trial, from Punilhraent for any Murders which they 
fhould commit on the Inhabitant: of thefe States: 

For cutting off our Trade with all Pans of the World : 

For impofing Taxes on us without our Confent : 

For depriving us, in many Cafes, of the Benefits ot Trial by Jury ; 

For tranfpotting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended Offences : 

For abolifhing the free Sylbtm of Englilh Laws in a neighbouring Province, edablifli- 
ing thetein an aibitrary Government, and enlarging its Boundaries, fo as to render it at 
once an Example and fit Inftrument lor introducing the fame aololutc Rule into thefe 



Colo: 



r Charters, abolifhing our moft valuable Laws, and altering fun- 



FoR taking away c 
damentally the Forms oi our u' vernmeniB ; 

For lulpending our own LegilUture!, and declaring themfelvc! invelled with Power to 
legiQate for us in all Cafes whatioever. 

He ha! abdicated Gover.-.ment here, by declaring us out of his ProteaioD, arui waging 
War agaioll us. 

He has plundered our Seas, ravaged our Coalts, burnt out Towns, and dcftroyed the 
Lives of our People. 

He is, at this Time, tranfporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to complete 
the Works of Death, Defolation, and Tytanny, already begun with Circumflances of 
Cruelly and Pc'dy, fcarcely paralleled in the moft barbatous Ages, and toully unworthy 
the Head d i civilized Nation. 

FIe has c.inli'?: ed ourFellow-Cititens, taken Captive on the high Sea!, to beat Arms 
againft their Country, to become the Executioners of their Friends and Brethren, or to 
fall themfelves by their Hands. 

ongft 05. and has endeavoured to bring on 
ilefs Indian Savages, whofe known Rule of 
of all Ages, Sexes, and Condition!. 



ned for Redrefs in the moft hum 
nly by rcr'iatcd Injury. A Prin 
nay define a Tyrant, is unfit to 



Kt ha! excited domeftic InfurreaL. 
the Inhabitants of our Frontiers, the n 
Waifare, is an undiftinguilhed Deftruai 

In every Stage of thefe OpprefTions we have Petiti 
Terms: Our repeated Petitions have been an( 
whole Charafter is thus marked by every Acl 
the Kuler ol a tree People. 

Nor have we been wanting in Attentions to our Britilh Brethren. We have warned 
them, Irom Time lo Time, o( Attempts by theit Leginalure to es'end an unwarrantable 
Juiildidliun over us. We have rcmlniSeJ them ot .l.c Ci.cumftantei, ol our Emigration 
and Settlement hete. We have appealed to their native Juftice and Magnanimity, and 
we have conjured them by the Ties of oi^r common Kindred to difavow thefe Unirpa:i- 
ons, which would inevitably interrupt our Connexion! and Correfpondence. They too 
have beeniieaf to the Voice ot Juftice and of Coofanguinity. We muft, therefore, ac- 
quiefce in the Neceinty, which denounces our .Separation, and hold them, as we hnkl the 
Reft oi Mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends. 

We, theielore, the Keprefentatives of the UNITED STATES or AMERICA, m 
GENERAL CONGRESS Afti^mbled, appealing to the Supreme Judges^ tht Woild 
for the Keclitude ol out Intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority oi Ae good 
People ot thefe Colonies, folemnly Publifli and Declare, That thefe United Colonies ate, 
and ol Right oughttobe, FREE ano INDEPENDENT STATES; thai they are 
abfolved Irom all Allegiance to the Britilh Crown, and that all political Connexion be- 
tween them and the State ol Great-Britain, is, and ought lo be, totally diffolved; and 
that as FREE and INDEPENDENT STATES, they have full Power to levy War, 
conclude Peace, contraa Alliances, eUablifh Commerce, and to do all other Aas and 
Ih.nus wnich INDEPENDENT STATES may of Right do. And lot the Support 
ol this D=claratioo,w,tha firm Reliance on the Proieaion of DIVINE PROVIDENCE, 
we mutually pledge lo each other our JUvtt, oat Fmum, and mr ficrid Htniur. 



John Hancock, 





.- Bulln Gntimll, 




George JVjihe, 


Georc 


,A, \ Lym^n Ml, 




Richard Hiwy Lte, 




ViBGIHIA, 


rh'. Jefferfon. 








Btnj". Harrijon, 




r tf"- Hteptr, 




7ho'- Ntl/oo, />■ 


North-Carol 


NA, \ Jiftfb Himi, 
t Jolm Pcnn. 




Franas Ligb:/»et Let, 
Carter Braxton. 




, BlwariRuMgt, 




Rob'- Morriit 


South-Carol 


S ni'- HrywirJ, jim'- 




Benjamin Ru^\ 


^^' J 'Ihomal Lynch^ jun'- 




Ueuja. Franklint 




C Aibur Miilam. 




yobn Morlont 


Marvh 


f hamuli Oidfi, 
ly- Pita, 
NO, , J'i-O'. Storu, 

Cbirlii Camil, ef Car- 
rcllton. 4 

i 




Ceo. Clymtr^ 
Ja- ■ Smith, 
Goo. laykr. 
Jams U^iifsn^ 
, Geo. Hojs. 




r Jcfith BarlUll, 

'•3' ' 




■ Ragtr Sherrrtarit 
) Suml. /iuili'iglsu, 
) Km. IViUiami, 
. Olivtr mUotl. 



In CONGRESS, J* 



ORDLREB, 
» H AT an I'lthtr.ticatcd Copy of the DECLAR.'iTlON < 
of the UNITED STATES, and that they be defired lo 



INDEPENPEMCr, 

lave the fame put on Rt 



with the Names of the MEMBERS of CONGRESS, fubfctlbing the fame; be fcnl to each 
CORD. 

By Ofdei ol CONGRESS, 









John Hancock, Prefident. 



^^---' 



BAtTIMORE, in Maryiakd; Printed by Max/ Kama 



in the Revolution. 



89 



be wicked impositions by legislation, under color of law.*' Our 
present legislation therefore, is subject to a comparison with that 
of the obnoxious Parliament as there specially denounced, as 
well as to discover the extent and value of the improvements 
it is making under the present limit Congress attaches to 
its power. In this view it may be considered the chart by 
which the ship of state was expected by them to be navigated. 
Either to appreciate the history of the details in which that power 
originated, or its use in the present and future it would appear 
that education in our past was indispensable to every citizen, and 
that it was especially the duty of those who inherited their rights 
from the founders, to qualify themselves not only to understand 
and protect the enjoyment of the legacy bequeathed to them, 
free from the effects of any alleged abuses of legislation, but to 
interest themselves, to arouse a similar sentiment in those who 
have rapidly joined them. Not to recall as an empty phrase, 
but to illustrate, that Eternal Vigilance is the price of liberty, by 
observing the proceedings of all bodies acting with delegated 
power, and if practicable, by wisely influencing the discretion 
with which that authority is conferred, by the individual 
citizen. 

49 ^h-ise grievances urged against the Bills of Parliament for " the better peopling 
of the Colonies," in the Congress of 1774, show that England was then charged with 
transporting a material she desired to be rid of, more dreaded than the " Hessians " 
80 unanimously denounced a few years later. The laws of the Colonies then de- 
prived them of every privilege beyond that of residence. 

" That it was too well known that in pursuance of divers Acts of Parliament great 
numbers of Felloivs luho ha-ve forfeited their li-ves to the Public, for the most atrocious 
crimes, are annually transported from home to these Plantations. Very surprising, one 
would think, that Thieves, Burglars, Pickpockets and Cutpurses, and a herd of the 
most flagitious Banditts upon earth should be sent as agreeable companions to 
us." * * * " But the acts were intendedybr the better peopling of the Colonies ! 
And will thieves and murderers be conductive to that end ? What advantage can 
we reap from a Colony of unrestrainable Renegadoes .? Will they exalt the glory of 
the crown ? * * * Can Agriculture be promoted when the wild Boar of the 
Forest breaks down our Hedges and pulls up our Vines ? * * How injurious 



90 Tories or Loyalists 

At the present time, with a population swollen by emigra- 
tion in a single year beyond its great natural increase, by nearly 
three-quarters of a million, the growing importance of the teach- 
ing of history in all our schools would seem to impress itself on 
all who desire to preserve our integrity. Many are coming to 
us naturally ignorant of our past and present and its cost to our 
forefathers and value to us and to them, and who cannot become 
parts of a homogeneous population advantageously until they 
have accepted intelligently our institutions in place of those 
under which they were born, and to which they were possibly 
hostile, rejecting as impracticable a dual nationality. 

A knowledge of American history would appear as requisite 
as those simple elements of education which enable the elector 
— and perhaps future ruler — to read an amendment of a 
constitution, on which by a steady extension of the privileges 
won in that struggle, he is soon qualified to vote. All 
details of the past — on a more liberal construction of some 
of which it is hoped that this use of these papers may 
possibly throw a ray of additional light, more useful than that of 
their earlier cremation, which some weary reader may already 
consider — sh' uld be constantly perfected and studied, even 
amidst the engrossing activity of the present. 

does it seem to free one part of the Dominions of the Plagues of Mankind and cast 
them upon another ? Should a law be proposed to take the poor of one Parish, and 
billet them upon another, would not all the world but the parish to be relieved, ex- 
claim against such a project as iniquitous and absurd ? Should the numberless 
Villains of London and Westminister, be suffered to escape from their Prisuiis, to 
range at large and depredate any other parts of the Kingdom, would not eveiy man 
join with the Sufferers and condemn the measures as hard and unreasonable '^' * * 
There are thousands of honest men, laboring in Europe at four pence a day, star-ving in 
ipite of all their efforts, a dead lueight to the respective parishes to lohich they belong ; 
xvho ivithout any other qualifications than Common Sense, Health and Strength, might 
accumulate estates amongst us, as many ha-ve done already. These, and not the others, 
are the men that should be sent o'ver, for the better peopling the Plantations.^'' 



in the Revolution. 9 r 

Such information is constantly becoming more valuable 
to a country wholly unprecedented in history in its absolute re- 
liance upon the patriotism, education, common sense, and mutual 
concession ot its citizens, as a guide for the future, ^the success 
of which is necessarily based on such knowledge of the past, on 
wide spread intelligence, a mutual adaptation, and regard 
for its founders and its early traditions. If any return were 
expected, for the labor of compiling and feebly annotating them, 
beyond an impression that perhaps " the deed in the doing it savors 
of worth ; " it would be most acceptable in the evidence that they 
had been the means of impressing upon some earnest reader, the 
fact, even if controverting one of Mr. Herbert Spencer's theo- 
ries, that education only can open the knowledge of the origin 
of a nation, inspire a proper pride in its progress and insure its 
permanency. (Appendix B.) 

That intelligence and ignorance have rarely existed long 
together without one asserting the control. That while some 
particles of this great aggregate — content to float like the 
smaller esculant, on the surface of a seething caldron, relying 
on an exaggerated estimate of their weight, perpetuity and 
value, by their temporary elevation — above larger roots — may 
sneer at such researches, as to the truly great men, and the earlier 
unsuccessful aspirants, long since buried underground ; as un- 
necessary to uneducated citizenship, and disparaging to spontan- 
eous statesmenship ; it has been the universal testimony of men 
of broader development and experience, that nothing can give a 
greater facility to a person of natural capacity, in judging of 
present events, than the appreciative study of those of the past. 
He can then discover many old masks on the faces of new actors 
on the public stage, and that they are often too large for the n^v/ 
wearer. That the best critical analysis applicable to new theo- 
12 



92 Tories or Loyalists 

ries of government, is based upon a knowledge of their success 
or failure in earlier times. 

That few things are on investigation discovered to be 
purely original, and that many projects have always been sus- 
tained by facts, some by fiction, and others by selfish interest. 
To prepare himself by study, using the ample means supplied 
for education or reading, would then appear to be the natural 
means of availing of the privilege every American enjoys. 
With these we readily discover the relative progress of 
nations, that wfeie intelligence is habitually developed, it .results 
asa necessity in the prosperity for the many; or where neglected, 
all others are subordinated to the advantage of the few. 

By such research it is easy to discover that there have been 
n".any political orators in the country, since the days of Patrick 
Henry, and many financiers, since Robert Morris, but none who 
more faithfully devoted available talents to the public. That 
there have also been many manipulations and fluctuations in 
finance since their time, in which fortunes changed in owner- 
ship, and rulers of the Change rose and fell. That there have 
been political questions and popular uprisings, involving bitter 
feeling, and threatening violence, in which the sober, common 
sense of the country — much of it grounded on the study of 
the similar crises in the past — has arisen in its might, come to 
the front, and with a strong hand torn the excited actors apart. 
It can be seen by reflection that to continue to accomplish this, 
the body politic must continue in vigorous health. That it 
demands no less care than in its youth, that like the human sys- 
tem, it requires the healthy circulation of the blood in every 
organ, to insure vigorous manhood and well preserved longevity. 



in the Revolution, 93 

r That'knowledge/equally" divided, is the only practicable and 
lasting communism, and that the crafty demagogue, as a cunning 
alchemist, with ignorance as the metal to be fused and mingled 
with rejected theories, proposes a panacea to satisfy the cravings 
of all, and scatter wealth,5° without intelligence, industry, or 
thrift, while he knows that by the substitution of intelligence and 
education he would in time produce the results to which he 
claims attention 'by pretending to seek, but in doing so feels 
that he must expose the empty charlatanism of a distribution 
of money without that of the elements that would continue the 
equality of its division ; unless accompanied by that of education 
and its frequent companion, thrift, valuable qualities calcu- 
lated to ensure its care and increase. 

Those who voluntarily assume the labor and outlay, incurred 
in the management of those princely private charities, which 
make New York, even alone, an asylum for the world's unfor- 
tunates, can give practical testimony, both as to the immense 
increasing clientage which presses for relief, and the very large 
proportion it includes of those who have never profited by 
those accessories to self protection from chronic destitution. 
(Appendix C.) 

50 This anecdote of Herrmann the Magician, in a St. Louis newspaper simply illus- 
trates the relative value of many new theories. After reaching the market he walked 
up to a huckster stand kept by a credulous old German named Mrs. Orf, 
asking her, as he looked over her stock of provisions, whether the eggs she had on 
hand were good. _ 

'' Yes," replied the old lady, " they are the freshest eggs m the market. If you 
don't think so just break one and see for yourself." 

The magician picked up the egg and broke it open. To her astonishment three 
ten-dollar °gold pieces rolled from the broken shell, which she grabbed at convul- 
sively, but Herrmann -was too quick for her and pocketed the money, while she 
gesticulated wildly and insisted that he should return it on the spot. Instead of 
complying with her request, however, he broke another egg, from which four ten- 
dollar gold pieces rolled out among the vegetables. This was too much for Mrs. 
Orf, who told him to leave instantly as she had no more eggs to waste. 



94 Tories or Loyalists 

Dr. Pollock, in a recent essay, has told us that *' The 
ultimate object of natural science is to predict events — to say 
with approximate accuracy what will happen under given con- 
ditions. Every special department of science occupies itself 
with predicting events of a particular kind; note, also, that 
each science occupies itself only with those conditions which 
are material for its own purposes." The laws of science 
naturally govern both men and nations. While all of their 
details are too unlimited for the capacity of a single mind, it 
would appear that each of those controlled by them may realize 
in his own experience, some valuable developments without 
assuming to devote himself to any specialty. In a like manner, 
some study of the rise and progress of government, and of the 
conditions which have influenced prosperity or decadence, may 
cause the reader to feel that he is more capable of " predicting 
events of a particular kind," such as those incident to the homo- 
geneous association of men for the difficult task of govern- 
ment. But, while the study of science may be properly di- 
vided, does it not seem that in the constant observation of 
every detail or the administration of a republican government, 
where each citizen is equally interested in its safety and success, 
if not in its control, all should devote their relative capacity, 
in seeking to apply to it all those principles which have proved 
to have been " conditions which are material " to perpetuity in 
former experience, and to reject such errors as have often re- 
sulted in national disaster .? s' 

5' A widely read Journal of the day would appear to confirm the value of uniting 
the progress of those material " conditions " in enquiring as to those of the great 
metropolis : " Are there no dangers to-day ? Is the tax levy a myth, with its ten 
millions for salaries ? Are our officials models of purity, capacity, and fidelity ? Are 
public works conducted with economy ? Is the administration of municipal affairs 
prudent and business like ? If so, let us continue to think about reform, after the 
politicians have arranged the division of {he spoils 5 let us hold meetings, appoint 
committees, pass resolutions, after the succession to the lucrative municipal offices 
has been decided upon." 



in the Revolution. 95 

It is repeating a possibly forgotten truth, that Rome was in- 
wardly the weakest in the zenith of her greatest outward 
prosperity, " when the sun" it was said 'Mn its whole meridian 
course kissed her legionary eagles scattered over every clime." 
That its downfall occurred, when its people, palled by success, 
became luxurious and enervated, with a growing fondness for 
the appetible, but enfeebling confections, spread before them by 
political pastry cooks, and neglected the wholesome diet of sub- 
stantial facts, on which the Conscript fathers subsisted while 
erecting the edifice, and which they prescribed for the nour- 
ishment of their posterity. 

The inference of a matter of fact citizen, when told how 
" Nero " had " fiddled when Rome was burning," " that he must 
have been very fond of music to lose so grand a spectacle " might 
apply to all of us who in neglecting to take an interest in pass- 
ing events are uninformed to what extent we are excelling Rome 
in our progress and whether we are avoiding all of the errors 
which finally culminated in her downfall. 

Another prosperous one, borne rapidly along by the present 
luxurious appliances, may only glance upon the Obelisk, 
impressed with the obligation conferred by its generous gift, and 
skillful transportation to a new world, and conjecture whether 
the Egyptian or Roman chariots, it looked down upon for ages 
after its erection, compared in finish and comfort, with a modern 
brougham ; but not whether Western Union, Union Pacific, or 
any other Union, will stand as erect and last as long — through 
the succession of long dynasties of Ptolemies and Caesars to that 
of ^' City Fathers," without similar care and scientific assistance. 

The correspondent at Rome of the "New York Evening Post" 
recently said " Brescia is still excited by the great theme of 



96 Tories or Loyalists 

Arnaldo. But we are getting a little too much of this historical 
archaeology. Manuta is preparing to observe the nineteenth 
centennary ot Virgil ; Arezzo will soon keep that of Guido 
Monaco, the inventor of musical notes ; Arpim that of Cicero, 
and Urbino that of Raphael. Some one sagely observes "that 
instead of studying so intently the history of great Italians dead, 
it were better to improve the present generation, and expect 
great deeds from those who live." 

Although it is true that Italy has not in later generations 
equalled those of the past in producing additions to her 
long line of illustrious names; and that her progress in this has 
been outstripped by many nations, unborn when she was already 
grey, it is proper to remember her heavy fall in the race of 
destiny, and how slow the recovery is. 

If the traveler in that classic land still finds himself rather 
dreaming of her former greatness than awakened to evidences 
of a new progress, would it not appear that it was therefore 
more especially needed to recall past triumphs, to inspire in a 
later, generation a spirit of pride, a desire to emulate, and a search 
for the appliances with which it was secured. At least it would 
seem natural to us, living in a country unpeopled by civilization 
at the time when they were wearing its laurels, to feel grateful 
that we are able to profit by the results of their early labors, which 
we enjoy in our schools, galleries and industries, and that each 
remembrance of their name, recalling their example may perhaps 
inspire imitation of their progress. That in their own land the 
persistence in thus recording those memories, must with wider 
educational preparation, in time incite many additional aspirants, 
to the fame of those whose self erected monuments tower so 
near them, and still inspire such efforts, in keeping their memory 
green. 



in the Revolution, 97 

Have not such revivals of the past, often held to be senti- 
mental, a practical use? What reflecting man can pause 
near that Obelisk without recalling its wierd history, the 
scenes it has witnessed, and the eyes that have looked 
upon it in its forty centuries, the changes of faith, dynasties, 
and conditions of the human race which it records but of 
which it cannot speak ? He may study its rugged silence, read 
there the history, the progress, vicissitudes and relative per- 
petuation of men and things, and gain a lesson of the littleness 
of a single life, which passes away without some honored record, 
only adding another to the billions who have tread beneath its 

shadow. 

Nearly three-quarters of a century ago Joseph Delaplame, of 
Philadelphia, an early appreciator of the association between 
that ancient republic and our own, then young ; at least in ihe 
coincidence of the early development of greatness, said— with 
an uninterrupted flow of enthusiasm — in the prospectus of the 
*^Collection of the Portraits of Distinguished Americans," which 
still usefully recalls his own name: " With a pride similar to 
his who, in the mansion of his ancestors, loves to dwell upon the 
venerable array of their portraits which surrounds him ; and, by 
the almost living glances which dart from the canvas, feels him- 
self unconsciously awed to virtue, will the unborn citizens of this 
expanding hemisphere, day after day, delight to sojourn amidst 
the forms of the fathers of their country^ and depart from the 
exhibition with newer and stronger aspirations after virtuous 
renown ! ' I have often,' to quote the language of the historian 
of the Jugurthinian war, 'heard that Quintus Maximus and 
Publius Scipio, and other illustrious men of our city, were 
accustomed to declare, when they looked upon the portraits of 
their ancestors, that they felt their minds most vehemently ex- 



98 Tories or Loyalists 

cited to virtue. Not, indeed, that the impression or the figure 
produced such powerful effects upon them, but by the recollec- 
tions of the achievements of these great characters, that a flame 
vi^as created in their breasts not to be quelled until they should 
have reached an equal elevation of fame and glory.' 'The 
history of such men,' says the learned translator of Plutarch, 
* is a continuous lesson of practical morality,' and what could 
be a more pleasing and impressive history of this country than 
that which would be exhibited in the well-arranged portraits of 
those by whom its moral and political grandeur was founded 
and raised to perfection ? The countenance of a Washington 
would mark the epoch of its military, and of a Franklin of its 
philosophical glory ; and all the galaxy of genius around them, 
while furnishing the materials for memory to work upon, would 
create new heroes, and stimulate new sages^ new statesmen and new 
orators^ 

" When time shall have swept away the splendid train of 
our earliest philosophers, statesmen and warriors, to swell the 
gathering of the grave ; when the tongue of genius shall 
moulder in gloomy silence ; when the eye of the orator shall 
be closed in darkness, and the spiritual fires of its glance no 
longer kindle the dormant intellects around ; when'the warrior's 
arm shall be sinewless, and by the side of his decaying form the 
sword of his triumphs shall lie rusting ; when the patrons of 
the soil shall have become an ingredient in its physical amal- 
gama ; a generous and grateful posterity will rank amongst the 
first of its public institutions^ that which will afford them, in 
effects, the delights of a sweet and familiar intercourse with 
beings endeared to them by the brilliance of their talents, and 
their virtues, as well as by the benefits which they conferred 
upon the land of their birth." 



in the Revolution, 99 

Since this enthusiastic patriot thus wrote, with many of his 
subjects still alive, a large portion of a century has given us 
better light than he possessed ! 

Many had then been born under the sway of a government 
which they once loving, had lived to hate, and doubtless the 
most modest of those who had aided in its downfall hoped 
that their names would survive, often recalled in history and 
the succession of their descendants. s' They witnessed, as 
it were, the setting out of a small train, at moderate speed, 
which we see vastly extended by increase and emigration, 
wheeling at a terrific speed over a widely extended track. One 
later accession, that of California, with nearly 189,000 square 

S= Horatio Seymour a life long appreciator and collector, of" the records of the 
achievements of those who opened the way to the many honors that have been con- 
ferred upon or offered to him, in reply to an invitation to unite in the Bi-Centennial 
Celebration of the ancient town of Yonkers — a very interesting occasion with which 
the contributor as an old resident of the neighborhood was gratified in being remem- 
bered, in its management — has lately written to its Mayor some valuable truths 
sustaining these impressions. 

"I regret that the state of my health will not allow me to attend the Bi-Centen- 
nial Celebration at Phillipse Hall at Yonkers. It is gratifying to learn that through- 
out our State there is shown a desire to mark with monuments spots of historic 
interest, and to collect and preserve all things which throw light upon the history 

of the past. 

These things not only show but they create a spirit ot patriotism, they give value 
and interest to the scenes which they mark or illustrate. By them the past speaks 
to the present. They tell us much of the history of early events ; they teach us our 
duties, and create higher standards of patriotism and virtue. 

Monuments, historical societies, and all arrangements to collect and preserve papers 
and objects relating to the past, not only teach us of the acts and virtues of the 
dead but they also show the character of the living and mark the civilization of the 
people. Monuments in enduring stone have for many centuries been silent but 
potent teachers of duty and devotion to the public welfare. Even now, after the 
lapse of many centuries, if their time-worn remains were swept away, the world 
would feel the loss of objects which remind us of our duties to the public. 

Heretofore we have reason to mourn the want of historical collections through- 
out our State which would show its citizens had a just sense of the great and varied 
events of its history. This dishonored not the dead but the living. Your celebra- 
tion, and others of a like character, prove that our citizens are waking up to their 
duties, and mean to make the public familiar with its events, the most varied and 
far reaching of any portion of our country." 

13 



lOO Tories or Loyalists 

miles of territory, over 68,000 more than the whole of Great 
Britain, best illustrates the development of her rebellious child. 

By the suppression of the Tory or his departure, by the 
absorption of those men of figure who then largely owned the 
colonies or controlled their affairs, by the extension of a limited 
franchise to one unbounded and unprecedented in its beneficence, 
by the want of much consideration for family service, in public 
affairs, and by the omission to a great extent of any veneration for 
official position, we are all now equals before the law ; coequal 
sovereigns like the old Electors Palatine who chose by vote the 
Emperor. Still those patriot fathers would seem to be the parents 
by adoption of every citizen, particularly of those who are coming 
to wear the crown which they created, at least until by the 
prosperity open to most who seek it, they in turn, create 
positions, dating from their birth or arrival in the New World 
in which each one, equalling the usefulness of those predeces- 
sors may claim to be the " Rudolph of Hapsburg " 'of his 
own family, by contributing as honored a portrait and name as 
theirs to posterity. 

The acquisition of property, gives an additional interest 
in the nationality to each one who achieves an ownership, 
however small, and its distribution amongst many in such 
divisions is the greatest guarantee of perpetuity. A State will 
be found, in all time, to have been most prosperous, where 
property was most divided, and where the extremes of the very 
rich, and the very poor, are exceptional, for the reason that the 
.hundreds of one man by the laws of nature are as valuable to 
hi m as the millions of another. But there is a common security 
under a thoroughly popular form of government, that even the 
man who owns one dollar, is a stockholder. We watch our in- 
vestment, in all other securities, and if in stocks study the daily 



in the Revolution, loi 

prices. Do we sufficiently realize that they are mere " con- 
nections" with the honest administration and prosperity of the 
government, and exist in its permanency alone ? Would it 
not seem that any vigilance displayed, in the selection of trus- 
tees of those lesser securities, with a view to their prosperity 
and honor, must apply with greater force to that of the govern- 
ment, which is the trunk line. 

If a stockholder suspects that his property is controlled by 
directors forced upon him by bargain and traffic, by primaries 
to which he has no access, by organizations, machines or rings 
formed to control the a^ients and property of any corporation, 
in the interests of a self-selected few, would he not if he had 
read of it, conceive that it was in danger of returning to a class 
government, more dangerous than the one that was annihilated 
by the Revolution of 1776 ? 

If the air were tainted by the fumes of a conflagration would he 
not seek for its location and flood it with water for the common 
good ; and if it was filled with nauseous rumors of selfish, and 
even dishonest combinations, for the control of his corporate 
property, turn his attention to the necessity of vigilance and of 
putting trusted parties in its charge ? All political history shows 
that two parties are necessary to a State, each a safety valve to 
the other, that a community is no sufferer by the parliamentary 
discussion of questions of policy, where its people differ, but 
that when such issues are avoided, by the fear of either or both 
parties, to assume a policy, then there is greater danger in com- 
binations of the worst element in both, for impure and selfish leg- 
islation. That all coalitions have been looked upon with doubt, 
we gather from such history, that the most competent, are 
often the most modest, in claiming place, while all countries 
have been supplied with varied voluntary material for office and 



I02 Tories or Loyalists 

power from the best, down to such as that which assassinated a 
president, because a worthless life seemed to him unfitting for 
reward, as a minister to Austria or consul to Pans ! 

Doubtless many cultivated readers, versed — as an example — 
in the teachings of Spencer, Huxley and Tyndall, perhaps from 
the absence of an appreciative taste, disregard the lessons of that 
history, of which most men, are unknowingly forming part, either 
by action or its neglect. All concede the value of patriotism, 
many are often critical as to its presence as an impulse ; possibly 
few consider that merely as an accomplishment it can be 
acquired by the study of its many results, or of the effects of its 
absence. A less cultivated but patriotic and shrewd observer 
like Mrs. Grundy— whose views have often become the reflex of 
public opinion— is in many cases more useful, than a more learned 
perfunctionary and statistical manipulator. (Appendix D.) 

In complying with his promise to the editor, the contributor 
has sought, in adding some material connected wirh his under- 
taking, to incidentally consider our progress in the eradication 
of the complaints against the government on which we were 
founded, and the uses we were making of a wonderful legacy, 
by following past history. 

That gentleman's thoughtful note, at the end of his own 
contribution -as to the difficulties under which they have been 
loosely thrown together, gives the opportunity to say that he 
has neither seen the manuscript, nor is he responsible for its 
contents, its contribution being purely voluntary. 

Not happening to have met either himself or General de 
Peyster since it was undertaken, and having no knowledge of 
what the latter had contributed to this accidentally triple asso- 
ciation, he fears that in his friendly desire to aid in his natura 



in the Revolution. 103 

effort to vindicate the memory of his relative, he may have re- 
peated or controverted some of the vievi^s, which he has doubtless, 
with his usual independency, asserted. In either such event, it 
has been his object to express the sympathy study teaches to 
humanity, as to the unfortunate fate and hardships of the Loyal- 
ists. In doing this he does not feel that he detracts from his own 
fealty to the government formed on their ruin, in which it is 
his pride to have been bred to feel the responsibility of 
aiding to hand it down, as a home of freedom wisely adminis- 
tered, to future generations. This explanation appears proper 
to account for any apparent want of cohesion, or accord, in the 
expression of individual, and therefore possibly conflicting 
opinion, in arriving at a common purpose, of recalling the 
memory of historical characters. 

On a final reading of this contribution, it suggests some resem- 
blance to a trunk hastily packed for a journey, with an oppor- 
tunity for selection from a sufficient wardrobe, which when 
resorted to, is found to contain some articles better fitted for 
the seclusion of a private apartment, than for public use, and to 
lack, many others more adaptable, but improvidently left at 
home. 

Spring House, Richfiild, 
September, 1882. 



APPENDIX A. 



COL. GUY JOHNSON'S LETTER (page 77). 



The following letter from Col. Guy Johnson to his uncle, is also found in Dr. 
Emmett's collection. It gives some particulars illustrative of the surroundings of 
both. 

N. York, Fehy. 10, 1773. 
My dear Sir William, 

I have just now had the pleasure of receiving your very kind letter of the 3d 
inst., with one from Dr. Dease*, another from Brother Claus, for which I am much 
obliged to them. It has vexed me a good deal to hear that your Votes did not go 
up early. They went by John Glen, and Gainef assures me he has forwarded a 
sett since. As the titles of several bills are -altered in the Committees, it may be 
necessary to acquaint you that the Road bill and money bill for building a Ct. House, 
&c., are passed through every form and the Tavern Bill, Swine Bill, Wolf Bill and 
Ferry Bill, will be in a very few days. You will find me voting on a side that some 
people might not expect. It will all be accounted for in due time, but is chiefly 
owing to certain difficulties imposed on the Governor. The other day they were 
for saddling a £50 per annum Salary, on the Judges of Circuit, to be paid out of 
our County, but after much difficulty, I got it laid general on the Province, Major 
SkeneJ is just going for_ Ireland. He has the other day got his place established as 
the County town. The Pacquet is arrived. All Peace at home. The General 
has got the King's leave to go to England, and will sail in June with his family. 
Haldemand| comes to take the command; and Governor Tryon (it is said) will 
have the vacant Red Ribband. He has taken much pains about the Indian matters, 
Banyar|| advises to get an Act for Fairs and Markets in lieu of the Ordinance, but 
the Governor choses the latter. In the Charter for the Church a description of the 
Glebe is absolutely necessary and how the right presentation should go. I hope you 



* Dr. John Dease was an Executor and Trustee under Sir William's will. 

t Hugh Gaine, editor of the New Tort Mercury, printed in Hanover Square ; established in 
1752. 

X Col. Philip Skene was settled at Slcenesborough (now Whitehall), and was actively employed 
by Burgoyne in his invasion. 

§ Gen. Gage came in lieu of Haldimand. 

II Goldsboro Banyar. 



io6 Toreis or Lovalists 

will continue your Parental attention to Polly and the little ores, she is I believe 
surprised I stay so long and I eagerly wish to return. The girls are well and much 
esteemed. The like may be said with great truth of Sir John. He will return with 
me and doubtless lay before you, the final determination of the Family here, respect- 
ing his union which I see nothing to prevent. The lady* is a fine Genteel Girl, 
much esteemed as well on acco't of the goodness of her Temper, as of her uncommon 
abilities, and she is ready to follow him anywhere. 

The man calls for my Letter, so that I can only beg a continuance of your cor- 
respondence, which yields me much real pleasure, and assure you once more of the 
Cordial Wishes I offer for your Health and happiness, and the true Affection with 
which I subscribe myself, 

My dear Sir, 

Your dutiful son and faithfiil servant, 

G. JOHNSON.f 

Sir Wm. Johnson, Bt. 



APPENDIX B. 



MR. HERBERT SPENCER'S FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF AMERICA 

(page 91). 



The immense progress of America, attracting the attention of Europe, makes it the 
field for that observing travel, long confined to the seats of departed greatness. The 
Emperor of Brazil, Petermann, Nordenskjold and a Baker Pacha, all notable in explor- 
ation, Hughes, Dean Stanley, Thackeray, Dickens, observers of character, the Prince 
of Wales, and Alexis and the Duke of Argyle, have come to us in late years; others 
are following, some of them less known but fully as competent, to view and 
estimate its reputed greatness. Dr. Mackenzie, an eminent specialist of London, 
has recently made a wide, rapid and intelligent exploration, and is now succeeded 
by Herbert Spencer, noted for the independence with which he has often asserted 
advanced ideas on questions intended to affect humanity. He who looks at him- 
self in a glass, often derives a different impression from that of another, who 
disinterestedly criticises a portrait satisfactory to the owner. An interview, given 
to the public since the foregoing crude inferences were printed, J and arriving in some 

* Mif8 Mary Watts, daughter of John Watts, Esq., of New York, to whom Sir John wat 
married on the 19th of June following.' ^ 

t Col. Guy Johnson was then a new Member of the Colonial Assembly. See Stone t " Sir 
William Johnson," vol. z, page 359. 

% New Tori Times, Oct. loth. 



in the Revolution, 107 

cases at different conclusions, appears to be an unfinished sketch worthy to be hung 
by the side of the completed picture, to which Delaplaine referred. If m express- 
ing his views, as a humanitarian, upon the progress of a saphng torn from the 
royal oak, any impression of national jealousy is suggested, is it not well to recall the 
truthful adage " fas est et ab hoste doceri." Mr. Spencer, with the appreciation 
wanting in the Obelisk, and with some of its experience derived from study of pro- 
eressive races and their development. After speaking of inferential facts, being asked : 
" Might not this misrepresentation have been avoided by admitting interviewers? 

"^"'possibly ; but, in the first place, I have not been sufficiently well ; and, in the 
second place, I am averse to the system. To have to -submit to cross examination, 
under penalty of having ill natured things said if one refuses, is an invasion of per- 
sonal liberty which I dislike. Moreover, there is implied what seems to me an 
undue love of personalities. Your journals recall a witticism of the poet Heine, who 
said that ' when a woman writes a novel, she has one eye on the paper and the 
other on some man — except the Countess Hahn-hahn, who has only one eye.' 
In like manner, it seems to me that in the political discussions that fill your papers, 
everything is treated in connection with the doings of individuals— some candidate 
for office, or some " boss " or wire-puller. I think it not improbable that this 
appetite for personalties, among other evils, generates this recklessness of statement. 
The appetite must be ministered to ; and in the eagerness to satisfy its cravings, 
there comes less and less care respecting the correctness of what is said."- 

" Has what you have seen answered your expectations ? " 

" It has far exceeded them. Such books about America as I had looked into had 
given me no adequate idea of tht immense de-velopmenn of material ci-vih-zatwn 
which I have everywhere found. The extent, wealth, and magnificence of your cities, 
and especially the splendor of New York, have altogether astonished me. Though 
I have not visited the wonder of the West, Chicago, yet some of your minor modern 
places, such as Cleveland, have sufficiently amazed me by the marvelous results of 
one generation's activity. Occasionally, when I have been in places of some 10,000 
inhabitants, where the telephone is in general use, I have felt somewhat ashamed 
of our own unenterprising towns, many of which of 50,000 inhabitants and more, 
make no use of it." ... ,,, 

«' I suppose you recognize in these results the great benefit of free institutions? 

« Ah, now comes one of the inconveniences of interviewing. I have been in the 
country 'less than two months, have seen but a relatively small part of it, and but 
comparatively few people, and yet you wish from me a definite opinion on a difficult 

question." .- . , l • • 

« Perhaps you will answer, subject .to the qualification that you are but giving 

your first impressions ?" , r • • • u 

Well, with that understanding, I may reply that, though free institutions have 
been partly the cause, I think they have not been the chief cause. In the first 
place, the American people have come into possession of an unparalled fortune — 
the mineral wealth and the vast tracts of virgin soil producing abundantly with small 
cost of culture. Manifestly that alone goes a long way toward producing this 
enormous prosperity. Then they have profited by inheriting all the arts, appliances, 
and methods developed by older societies, while leaving behind,the obstructions existing 
in them They have been able to pick and choose from the products of all past ex- 
periencel appropriating the good and rejecting the bad. Then, besides these favors 
of fortune, there are factors proper to themselves. I perceive in American faces 
generally, a great amount of determination — a kind of "do or die " expression; and 

14 



io8 Tories or Loyalists 



this trait of character, joined with a power of work exceeding that of any other 
people, of course produces an unparalleled rapidity of progress. Once more, there is 
the inventiveness which stimulated by the need for economizing labor, has been so 
wisely festered. Among us in England there are many foolish people vvlio while 
thinking that a man who toils with his hands has an equitable claim to the product, 
and if he has special skill may rightly have the advantage of it, also hold that if a 
man toils with his brain, perhaps for years, and, uniting genius with perseverance, 
evolves some valuable invention, the public may rightly claim the benefit The 
Americans have been more far-seeing. The enormous museum of patents which I 
saw at Washington is significant of the attention paid to inventors' claims, and the 
Nation profits immensely from having in this direction (though not in all others) 
recognized property in me;,tal products. Beyond question, in respect of mechanical 
appliances, the Americans are ahead of all nations. If along with your material 
progress there went equal progress of a higher kind, there would remain nothing to 
be wished." 

" That is an ambiguous qualification. What do you mean by it ?" 
" You will understand when 1 tell you what I was thinking of the other day. 
After pondering over what I have seen of your vast manufacturing and trading es- 
tablishments, the rush of traffic in your street cars and elevated railways, your gigan- 
tic hotels and Fifth-avenue palaces, I was suddenly reminded of the Italian republics 
of the Middle Ages, and recalled the fact that while there was growing up in them 
great commercial activity, a development of the arts which made them the envy of 
Europe, and a building of prince!y mansions which continue to be the admiration of 
travelers, their people were gradually losing their freedom." 

" Do you mean this as a suggestion that we are doing tiie like ?" 
" It seems to me that you are. You retain the forms of freedom, but so far as I 
can gather, there has been a considerable loss of the substance. It is true that 
those ivho rule you do not do it l;y means of retainers armed with swords ; but they 
do it through regiments of men armed with voting-papers, who obey the word of 
command as loyally as did the dependents of the old feudal nobles, and who thus 
enable their leaders to override the general will and make the community submit 
to their exactions as effectually as their prototypes of old. It is doubtless true that 
each of your citizens votes for the candidate he chooses for this or that office from 
President downward, but his hand is guided by a power behind, which leaves him 
f c.-.rcely any choice. ' Use your political power as we tell you, or else throw it 
away,' is the alternative offered to the citizen. The political machinery as it is now 
worked has little resemblance to that contemplated at the outset of your political 
life. Manifestly, those who framed your Constitution never dreamed that 20,000 
citizens would go to the poll led by a '' boss." America exemplifies, at the other 
end of the social scale, a change analogous to that which has taken place under 
sundry despotisms. You know that in Japan, before the recent revolution, the 
divine ruler, the Mikado, nom'nally supreme, was practically a puppet in the hands 
of his chief Minister the Shogun. Here it seems to me that the ' sovereign people ' 
is fast becoming a puppet which moves and speaks as wire-pullers determine." 
" Then you think that republican institutions are a failure." 

" By no means ! I imply no such conclusion. Thirty years ago, when often dis- 
cussing politics with an English friend, and defending republican institutions, as I 
always have done and do still; and v/hen he urged against me the ill-working of 
such institutions over here ; I habitually replied that the Americans got their form 
of government by a happy accident, not by normal progress, and that they would 
have to go back before they could go forward. What has since happened seems to 



in the Revolution. 109 

me to have justified that view ; and what I see now confirms me in it. America i. 
showing on a larger scale than'ever before that ' paper const.tufons w.H not work 
as they are intended to work. The truth, first recognized by Mackmto h, ha 
'constitutions are not made, but grow,' which is part of the larger truth that 
.ode ties throughout their whole organizations are not made but grow at once when 
accepted, disposes of the notion that you can work, as you hope, any artificially de- 
vised system of government. It becomes an inference that if your political structure 
Lsbeln manuLured.and not grown, it will forthwith ^^g'" 1° g^ 'nareTo'f 
thing different from that intended -something in harmony with the natures of 
ch^izens and the conditions under which the society exists. And it evidently ha 
been so with you. Within the forms of your Constitution there has grown up th s 
organization of professional politicians, altogether uncontemplated at the outset, 
which has become in large measure the ruling power. , , ^ r r 

"But will not education and the diffusion of political knowledge fit men for free 

'"'" No°"'lt'is essentially a question of character, and only in a secondary degree a 
question of knowledge. But for the universal delusion about education as a panacea 
for political evils, this would have been made sufficiently clear by the evidence daily 
d° clos d in your' papers. Are not the men who officer and control your Federal, 
State and municip-.l organizations - who manipulate your caucusses and conven- 
rions and run you^r partisan campaigns - all educated men ? And has their educa- 
ion prevented them' from engaging in or permitting, or condoning, the briberies, 
bbby'ngs, and other corrupt methods which vitiate the actions of your admin.tra 
tions'.^ 'perhaps party newspapers exaggerate these things; but -^a ^-//° ^J^^ 
of the testimony of your civil service reformers - men of all parties ? If I under- 
stand th matted aright, they are attacking, as vicious and dangerous, a system which 
has grown up under'th^ natural spontaneous working of your free institutions - are 
exposing vices which education has proved powerless to prevent , . ^, 

"Of course, ambitious and unscrupulous men will secure the offices and educa- 
tion will aid them in their selfish purposes ; but would not those purposes be thwarted 
and better government secured, by raising the standard of knowledge among the 

^'"Ve^ytole'" The current theory is that if the yo^ng are taught what is right, 
andtheLasons why it is right, they will do what is right when they grow up. 
But cons dering what religious teachers have been doing these 2 ooo years, it seems 
to r^e tSat al, history is ag'ainst the conclusion, as much as is the -nduct of these 
well educated citizens I have referred to, and I do not see why you e^pe b tt 
results among the masses. Personal interests will sway the men in the ranks as 
heyswaTthemen above them, and the education which fails to make the las 
consult public good rather than private good will fail to make the firs do it. The 
benefits of political purity are so general and remote, and the profit to ea h ndm 
dual so inconspicuous, that the common citizen, educate h.m as yo" I'^e, wiU 
Jab tualli occupy himself with his personal affairs, and hold it not worth his while 
to fi^ht against «ch abuse as soon as it appears. Not lack of information, but lack 
of certain moral sentiments, is the root of the evil. ,,.,,. 

" You mean that people have not a sufficient sense of public duty . 
" Well, that is one way of putting it; but there is a more specific way. Probably 
it wiP suprise you if I say that the American has not, I think, a sufficiently quick 
ens of 1 i own claims, and, at the same time, as a necessary consequence, no a 
uffiientlqulk sense o'f the claims of others- for the two tra.ts-e organically 
elated I observe that you tolerate various small interferences and dictations which 



1 1 o Tories or 'Loyalists 

Englishmen are prone to resist. 1 am told that the English are remarked on for 
their tendency to grumble in such cases ; and I have no doubt that it is true." 

*' Do you think it worth while i'or people to make themselves disagreeable by re- 
senting every trifling aggression ? We Americans think it involves too much loss 
of time and temper and doesn't pay." 

"Exactly. That is what 1 mean by character. It is this easygoing readiness to 
permit small trespasses because it would be troublesome or profitless or unpopular to 
oppose, which leads to the habit of acquiescence in wrong and the decay of free in- 
stitutions. Free institutl> ns can be maintained only by citizens, each of whom is 
instant to oppose every illegitimate act, every assumption of supremacy, every official 
excess of power, however trivial it may seem. As Hamlet says, there is such a 
thing as 'greatly to find quarrel in a straw' when the straw implies a principle. 
If, as you say of the American, he pauses to consider whether he can afl^ord the time 
and trouble — 'whether it will pay' — ^corruption is sure to creep in. All these 
lapses from higher to lower forms begin in trifling ways, and it is only by incessant 
watchfulness that they can be prevented. As one of your early statesmen said : 
" The price of liberty is eternal vigilance." But it is far less againn foreign ag- 
gressions upon national liberty that this vigilance is required than against the insi- 
dious growth of domestic interferences with personal liberty. In some private 
administrations which I have been concerned with, I have often insisted, much to 
the disgust of officials, that instead of assuming, as people usually do, that things are 
going right until it is proved that they are going wrong, the proper course is to 
assume that they are going wrong until it is proved that they are going right. You 
will find, continually, that private corporations, such as joint-stock banlcing com- 
panies, come to grief from not acting upon this principle. And wiiat holds of these 
small and simple private administrations, holds still more of the great and complex 
public administrations. People are taught, and, I suppose, believe, that 'the heart 
of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked ; ' and yet, strangely 
enough, believing this, they place implicit trust in those they appoint to this or that 
function. I do not think so ill of human nature ; but, on the other hand, I do not 
think so well of human nature as to believe it will do without being watched." 

"You hinted that while Americans do not assert their own individualties suffi- 
ciently in small matters, they, reciprocally, do not sufficiently respect the indivi- 
dualities of others." 

"Did \} Here, then, comes another of the inconveniences of interviewing. I 
should have kept this opinion to myself if you had asked me no questions, and now 
I must either say what I do not think, which I cannot, or I must refuse to answer, 
which, perhaps, will be taken to mean more than I intend, or I must specify at the 
risk of giving oftisnse. As the least evil 1 suppose I must do the last. The trait I 
refer to comes out in various ways, small and great. It is shown by the disrespectful 
manner in which individuals are dealt with in your journals — the placarding of public 
men in sensational headings, the dragging of private people and their affairs into 
print. There seems to be a notion that the public have a right to intrude on private 
life as far as they like ; and this I take to be a kind of moral trespassing. It is true 
that during the last few years we have been discredited in London by certain weekly 
papers which do the like (except in the typographical display) ; but in our daily press, 
metropolitan and provincial, there is nothing of the kind. Then, in a larger way, 
tiie trait is seen in this damaging of private property by your elevated railways with- 
out making compensation j and it is again seen in the doings of railway governments, 
not only when overriding the rights of shareholders, but in dominating over courts 
of justice and State governments. The fact is that free institutions can be properly 



in the Revolution. 1 1 1 

worked only by men each of whom is jealous of his own rights, and also sympatheti- 
cally jealous of the rights of others — will neither himself aggress on his neighbors, 
in small things or great, nor tolerate aggression on them by others. The Republi- 
can form of Government is the highest form of Government, but because of this it 
requires the highest type of human nature — a type nowhere at present existing. 
We have not grown up to it, nor have you." 

" But we thought, Mr. Spencer, you were in favor of free government in the 
sense of relaxed restraints, and letting men and things very much alone — or what 
is called laisse-zfaire? 

" That is a persistent misunderstanding of my opponents. Everywhere, along with 
the reprobation of government intrusion into various spheres where private activities 
should be left to themselves, I have contended that in its special sphere, the main- 
tenance of equitable relations among citizens, governmental action should be ex- 
tended and elaborated." 

" To return to your various criticisms, must I then understand that you think un- 
favorably of our future ?" 

" No one can form anything more than vague and general conclusions respecting 
your future. The factors are too numerous, too vast, too far beyond measure in 
their quantities and intensities. The world has never before seen social phenomena 
at all comparable with those presented in the United States. A society spreading 
over enormous tracts while still preserving its political continuity, is a new thing. 
This progressive incorporation of vast bodies of immigrants of various bloods has 
never occurred on such a scale before. Large empires, composed of different people, 
have, in previous cases, been formed by conquest and annexation. Then your im- 
mens'e plexus of railways and telegraphs tends to consolidate this vast aggregate of 
States in a way that no such aggregate has ever before been consolidated. And there 
are many minor co-operating causes unlike those hitherto known. No one can say 
how it is all going to work out. That there will come hereafter troubles of various 
kinds and very grave ones, seems highly probable; but all nations have had, and 
will have, their troubles. Already you have triumphed over one great trouble, and 
may reasonably hope to triumph over others. It may, I think, be reasonably held 
that both because of its size and the heterogeneity of its components, the American 
nation will be a long time in evolving its ultimate form, but that its ultimate form 
will be high. One great result is, I think, tolerably clear. From biological truths 
it is to be inferred that the eventual mixture of the allied varieties of the Aryan race 
forming the population, will produce a more powerful type of man than has hitherto 
existed, and a type of man more plastic, more adaptable, more capable of undergoing 
the modifications needful for complete social life. I think that whatever difficulties 
they may have to surmount, and whatever tribulations they may have to pass through, 
the Americans may reasonably look forward to a time when they will have pro- 
duced a civilization grander than any the world has known." Could this be so, 
were educated citizens largely in the majority, equally fitted to contend at the polls 
for a number of places necessarily limited in proportion to those who would seek 
them .? Would the intense national individuality, when more widely educated 
then readily aggregate — as is correctly stated — by thousands, and delegate their 
power to any single man .? Would not the competition of increased intelligence for 
office, govern success more by fitness, and cause a net to be drawn, with closer 
meshes over our political sea ? On the solution of su:h questions the permanancy of 
actual government of the people, by the people hinges. 



1 1 2 Tories or Loyalists 



APPENDIX C. 



INEVITABLE EFFECTS OF A RAPID PROGRESS ON THE POSITION 
OF REPRESENTATIVES OF EARLIER SETTLERS (page 93). 



These institutions, involving and receiving great attention, and usually conducted 
with marked integrity and system, naturally include in their management, material as 
broad as their object. In many of them, may be prominently found the descendants 
of the original Dutch and English settlers, now rarely met with in the record of public 
trusts. Their influence and control, has mainly become gradually limited to these, 
and to their social and business connections, in private life. Any distinct influence, 
as a recognized or cohesive element, often found in communities, has been lost in the 
mighty wave of emigration and its increase, which where aggregated controls the selec- 
tion of most of its representatives. This is more evident at points near to the place 
of its arrival, and it is necessarily free from the influence of such earlier tradition, 
and sentiment, as it may in time create in its own successors. Investigation de- 
velopes such changes of authority in all history, as continuous as the rolling waves 
sometimes reaching the beach, at others breaking too early, from their acquired 
force. Under other institutions they are more frequently the result of conquest than 
of a friendly acceptance with unlimited legal hospitality, as an element of control. 
When Charles II — claiming under the exploration of the Cabots, in their second 
voyage in 1497, from their touching the mainland — presented a Dutch colony 
which he had never possessed, to his brother, the Duke of York, and it was conquered 
by his agent. Colonel Nicolls in August, 1664, the inhabitants were not only pro- 
tected in all their rights, by that humane commander, but retained many local 
positions of authority, after the invasion. Its capture, caused a war between England 
and the Dutch Provinces, through which a William the Stadtholdcr of Holland, 
gradually developed as future King of England, and the loss of a colony by the Dutch 
was then compensated by the gaining of a crown by a Dutchman. That war was at 
its origin considered an ungrateful return for the kindness which both of those 
Princes had experienced when in exile, from the authorities of the Netherlands, 
unawed by Cromwell's displeasure. Colonel Nicolls, apparently infinitely superior to 
his master, was killed in a sea fight in that war in 1672, on the Duke of York's 
ship while still remembered with affection here by those whom he had subdued. His 
munificent patron had rewarded him with a gift of £200 ! on surrendering his 
difficult and well administered Governorship. Before that conquest, England's early 
colonies about Nieu Amsterdam — some of them under its sufferance — had been a 
source of apprehension to its burghers. Their original institutions seemed to have 
been compassed by the example of their original home, and not to have been adapted 



in the Revolution. 113 



to the early extension of that toleration in their new one, to those who had fled to 
America to secure the liberty of conscience, the struggle for which had long 
desolated the Low Countries in Europe. All then visiting Nieu Amsterdam, the 
Dutch Records inform us, became subject to this rule "beside the Reformed 
Religions, no conventicles shall be holden in houses, barns, ships, woods or 
fields, under penalty of 50 guilders for each person, man, woman or child 
attending, for the first offence, double for the second, quadruple for the third, 
and, arbitrary correction for every other." This early exclusiveness was perhaps an 
omen of their own later exclusion to a great extent from the control of the public 
affairs of that ancient settlement once the seat of an almost universal prosperity and 
a type of practical "Home Rule" in the frugal and primitive administration of its 
public affairs. Of the six hundred grants for Manors and Estates, once held by them, 
a small portion remains in the possession of their descendants, if unoccupied, a heavy 
burthen, by the extravagant and often useless and premature assessments and onerous 
taxes constantly imposed upon it, in the employment of the labor of those detained 
by the small proportion ot the outlay it receives, from an infinitely larger and more 
lasting reward, in the wide and bountiful field for its occupation in the less crowded 
Western territory. 

Perhaps in time, some humane system may be discovered, to advise new comers 
of the inevitable law of supply and demand which controls the location of their probable 
success, and that it is governed by the area open for largely agricultural employment. 
The " Commissioners of Emigration " have reported a pleasant fact for the Western 
States: That two- thirds of the emigration, including the most provident, join them 
directly, led by that intelligence which perhaps had caused such former success, while 
one third lingers on the sea-board, to compete for employment in crowded and ex- 
pensive cities, causing the over competition often complained of, and in busmess re- 
vulsions accumulated distress. 



APPENDIX D. 



MRS. GRUNDY'S OBSERVATIONS AS TO UTOPIA (page 102). 



In her recent " Observations in Utopia," Mrs. Grundy, as active as extended 
in her travels and researches, points out many defects in the administration of 
that model Republic as instructive to our own. She tells us how " Colonel 
Trusty, a watchful consul in Switzerland reported — and perhaps violated the 
rules of the department, in also disclosing, what every intelligent citizen has 



114- Tories or Loyalists 

long known to apply to many nationalities and cities of Europe — that some of the 
Cantons of Switzerland were shipping their convicts to Utopia, and suggested that 
an inspection for such contraband of peace, be made at the time of departure, to 
which no respectable passenger could apparently object. When some compatriots 
evidently without appreciation that every country has proved able to produce more 
criminals than its prosperity requires, remonstrated, a junior official replied, that the 
consul had been reprimanded, and were he not a meritorious veteran would be re- 
moved. Would it not be fair, in the absence of any evidence of the pressure of this 
intelligence upon the earliest Congress for action, to infer that the country did desire 
an accession of such criminals to the honest portion of its citizenship, and their closer 
proximity to their homes and families. Could this vital suggestion have been over- 
looked, especially by that successor who had first excelled even, the founder ot this 
Republic in a temperate and frugal denial in the viands of the executive table, and had 
displayed his unparalled clemency in restoring to rank so many dispensed with for its 
neglect by the judgment of their fellow officers — always a painful duty. 

With a vast area of territory yet to be occupied, the quality as well as the extent 
of new accessions would seem to interest every citizen. The outrages daily recorded, 
rarely prove when investigated to be the acts of settled residents but generally of those 
of a floating and fungus growth who prefer to eat the grapes rather than to labor in 
the vineyard. Robbery, generally attended by the use of arms and often by the 
shedding of blood, does not seem to be deterred by the fear of a short and relatively 
comfortable confinement, with the hope of escape or pardon, by the influence of those 
perhaps more ready to overlook the wrongs of others, than they would be their own. 
The shooting of two policemen, at early evening, in a frequented village, while 
attempting to arrest tliree successful burglars, loaded with plunder secured in a 
neighijoring town, within the writer's hearing, recalls the value of the Consul's 
suggestion, and the possibility of these very criminals, being of those he attempted 
to exclude ; an apparently less effective inspection at landing has since been legalized." 

"Can the thought be entertained, that with our Washington at the head of 
government, and substantially the " Father of his Country " he would if advieed 
of it have neglected this warning, as to what would appear to affect the healthy 
development of any country." 

"It would be interesting, if it were possible," she adds, "to hear the criticism of some 
modern legislation here, and the tracing of its results, by one of our own time honored 
statesmen — Benjamin Franklin for example- — accustomed to be driven from place to 
place of meeting, legislating with a halter in plain view in case of failure, and sur- 
rounded by the hardships of war, and the need of means for its progress, yet with the 
whole country's best interests always steadily in view. It might provoke even him to 
mirth, to foreshadow that refinement of push pole navigation, coming as one of the 
results of a progress based on those sacrifices, when a " constituency " here would 
demand, in the face of the President's veto, an appropriation to render a stream naviga- 
ble which, on a careful inspection proved capable of being carried, in the dry season, 
in a box drain a foot square. It would have pleased him as a broad philanthropist, 
to know, that in a recent bill, a provision requiring such inspection hereafter, was a 
desirable feature, and probably still more so to learn that the value of the method 
resorted to in the State of New York, of vetoing sections in a bill, and so preserving 
the interests of proper subjects of legislation had suggested itself also to this Utopian 
Congress. " 

" Could so wise a patriot as Franklin, with such intelligence as he had necessarily 
acquired as to the material of war, have been expected to vote for example, for the 



in the Revolution. 115 

Utopian Pension Act, or other even humane legislation, not limited by provisions 
for the strictest personal examination of the claimant, by a responsible officer, supplied 
with ample evidence of identity and service, with power to test the common 
assertion that conjectured widows, have claimed in the names of soldiers, they 
have never seen, long lying in honored graves, and that constructive veterans 
possibly disabled by a bunion, acquired in too hastily retiring from active service, after 
the receipt of a bounty, are now in a large number of cases subsisting on an equal 
allowance with actual veterans." 

" In our own country Adjutant General Stryker, of New Jersey, a zealous officer, 
who presents his resignation to each incoming Governor, and is never permitted to sur- 
render a small salary for a large service, has, with much labor from scant State archives 
by exhaustive search, with little assistance, and small expense, condensed a roster of the 
Revolutionary service of every contribution from that fighting little State, from a 
major general to a wagoner. He has supplemented it, with a similar record of service 
in the last war, and in its inspection the long lists of " deserted," probably mainly of 
those who never intended to serve — mingled with longer ones of gallant veterans, 
many of whom fell in battle — is a source of surprise to the reader. I have suggested 
the preparation and use of such works here. Probably these desertions are not in 
excess of those of other states, in proportion to their population, but they would 
be a large numeral addition to the Subsistence Roll of an army. Such records for 
all the States would seem to be invaluable to a conscientious Pension Agent, or a 
vigilant investigator of fraudulent bounties or claims. They would be read with 
attention in Utopia." 

" The action of the Viking of Bashwash, when in charge of the Naval Affairs 
of Utopia, in restoring to the school under control of his Department, a number 
of cadets who had resigned to avoid an investigation, under charges unfitting 
them if proved, for service as officers, was greatly disapproved by those who 
wished to continue to be proud of their Navy, and that of the honored Com- 
mander who in strongly protesting, lost the favor of his chief and even his official 
courtesies, as highly praised." She further says, " the latest amendment to the 
Constitution of Utopia, which was not passed without opposition, seems worthy of 
attention. It provides, that every citizen in demanding or collecting interest, rent 
or any other source of revenue, shall be hereafter required to exhibit to the person 
of whom payment is asked, at the time of such demand, a certificate to the fact that 
the creditor had voted at the last election, to be duly certified by the clerk of the 
Poll, or official evidence of a reasonable excuse, and all debtors, are forbidden to 
pay without such exhibition. It has already greatly increased the vote of that 
reserved class, who have haretofore neglected the control of their most valuable in- 
vestment, by which all others are protected and guaranteed, while attentive to the 
election of corporate Directors." 

'' Civil Service Reform," is growing in favor with many, from the liberal con- 
struction of the law. Examinations for appointments are influenced as to their extent 
by the circumstances. Where strong testimonials are presented, they are held to 
make a searching series of questions as to capacity, unnecessary, but in their absence 
greater care is considered necessary. 

The intention of the law is construed to be to enable the government to avail 
itself of the services of those whose armor has been hacked and broken in the 
defence of the interests of the party entrusted with the management of public affairs, 
and to dispense with the services of good men too engrossed in their duties to gire 
sufficient attention to the interests of the power which protects them. 

15 



ii6 Tories or Loyalists 

Their influence, as examples of good citizenship is considered more useful, when 
scattered unhampered by office amongst the body of the people." 

" It is rumored that an effort will be made at the next session of the Utopian 
Congress, to rescind its novel rule requiring the insertion of pellets of cotton in the 
ears of a member addressing the chair, after ten minutes speaking, with a view to 
confining the length of his remarks to the suggestions of the mind, and not to allow 
them to be led on by the pleasant music of the voice, after the material suggestioni 
have been made. Its intention was to economize valuable time, where all speeches 
may be elaborated and printed." 

• "The descendants of the Liberators of Utopia are rarely found in official position. 
They comfort themselves by feeling that like Alcibiades they may be 'esteemed too 
just.' 

Great attention is given by the farmers here to the breeding of blooded stock, and 
fabulous prices are paid for animals of approved pedigree." 

" This letter from a candidate for the Utopian Congress to the committee who 
had the power to nominate him ; and to their credit did so, has been much dis- 
cussed, its candor questioned, and its contents pronounced as "toffy," but it has been 
doubted, largely by those who had spoiled their digestion by its excessive use. Others 
consider that it is a good old fashioned doctrine." 

"Still, that there may be no possibility of mistake, and in simple fairness to the 
gentlemen who have the matter in control, I take this public way of saying with as 
much emphasis as may be, that from careful observation and a somewhat intimate 
acquaintance with the inner workings of both the great political parties, I am con- 
vinced that the one greatest curse of our political system is the corrupt use of money 
and patronage in elections. Were I nominated, I should not directly or indirectly, 
pay or cause to be paid one dollar to secure an election. Further than this, I may 
say that, believing the work of office seeking, place brokerage, and position peddling 
to be no part of the duty of a member of Congress, I should, if elected, refuse posi- 
tively to take any part in the general scramble for places in the departments, an 
occupation which can only be engaged in by neglecting legitimate and necessary 
work in the house at the sacrifice of self-respect, and to the serious detriment and 
disgrace of the public service. In short, I could only accept the nomination with 
the distinct understanding that, in addition to earnestly and sincerely subscribing to 
all the time-honored principles of my party, I should enter the canvass upon the 
clean new platform of honest, progressive, and independent Republicans. If there 
be any gentleman who would vote for my nomination on other terms, I beg him to 
refrain from doing so. His action could only result in disappointment." He was 
defeated. 

It may occur to some weary reader, why some of these notes, apparently discon- 
nected from the subject, are worked in to his annoyance. Simply because it appears 
that the use made by any nationality, of discussion of the action of either or all of 
its former rulers, is the strongest censure that can be inflicted by their posterity 
on those who opposed its creation, and questioned its future integrity, where so many 
were to be trusted with its control. 

Mr. Henry George, who has lately bearded the British Lion in hii den, and con- 
tended with the Dragon which prevented the universal prosperity and happiness of the 
human race, as fearlessly as did his namesake, the patron saint of the now oppressors, 
has on his return hastily plucked a handful of feathers, principally exotic, from the 
terminal portion of the Utopian "Bird of Freedom." He alludes truthfully, to the ex- 
travagance and uncleanliness of " Outre Mer," its great maritime and again largely 



^7^ the Revolution. i j 7 

colonial city, and yet displays an apparent want of appreciation of the causes requisite 
to the value of his undertaking. He says no one : 

" Can go to Europe and study the system of government there without 
feeling a very great contempt for it — without feeling that he would like to go 
as a missionary among those people, to tell them to stand up, to teach them the 
virtues and the beauties and the philosophy of democracy. (Applause.) One 
thing, however, would deter him. A man would feel like that, if he knew nothing 
of the condition of this country. He would be met with the suggestion, however, 
that he look to his own country — to cities like this great metropolis of yours 
ruled and robbed by a class of miserable politicians." 

After stating that if Utopia had been " true of Democratic principles " there would, 
not now, in his opinion " be a crowned head in Europe," he honestly points out as 
causes of the delay, 

" But what shall we say when over here, where every man is equal before the 
law, where every citizen has a right to vote, where all power is in the hands of the 
people, the masses of the workers are but little, if any, better off than on the other 
side.'' What is the use of democratic institutions to men who cannot get a living 
without cringing and buying and selling their manhood. (Applause.) Can we 
prate and boast of our institutions when we read of people dying of starvation ? when 
we have alms-houses in every city.'" 

He proposes to exempt improved property from future taxation, but to remove the 
field for the harvest of the enormous amount of its expenses to the unoccupied 
portions of the island, and annexed adjacent territory. Speaking of a friend who 
desired to invest in improvements, he says : 

" If he went to the upper Dortion of this island, as he probably would go, he 
would find there plenty of vacant land that is now of no use to anybody save as the 
receptacle of rubbish and a browsing place for goats of that species popularly sup- 
posed to live on old boots and glass bottles. Very naturally he would say, no one 
is using this land. It is, in fact, in its present condition an eyesore and a nuisance. 
Let me come on it and I will erect a fine house, which will be an ornament to the 
neighborhood and an inducement to other people to erect good houses in the vicinity. 
Or I will build a factory in which I will employ a great number of hands, and turn 
out every year a large amount of goods that everybody desires. Should we not say 
to him : — ' Go ahead and welcome ! Fine houses are better than rubbish-filled 
lots, and we would rather have factories than goat pastures ?' But we say nothing of 
the kind." 

" On the contrary, Mr. Saunders would be confronted by some one by legal right 
of a title derived from some of the old Dutchmen who first settled this island and 
who have been dead and gone long years ago, who would say to him, ' Before you 
can build your houses or erect your factory you must pay me such and such a sum.' 
Finding that he could not in any other way get a place upon which to make the 
improvement he contemplated, Mr. Saunders would probably consent to pay a price 
which, in its nature, would be nothing more nor less than a species of blackmail 
levied upon a man who wished to improve natural opportunities for the benefit of 
some dog-in-the-manger who could not and would not use them for himself. His 
capital being thus further diminished he would proceed to build his house and erect 
his factory. What then } As soon as he got them up, along would come a tax 
gatherer and would say to him, you have built a house, you have erected a factory, 
and for doing these things the laws of this country fine you to such and such an 
amount, and unless you pay the fine and keep on paying the fine, we will take from 
you the property which is the result of your exertions.' And not satisfied with that, 



1 1 8 'Tories or Loyalists 



if Mr. Saunders' skill and prudence and energy enabled him, after all this, to make 
money, and his providence enabled him to lay it up, the taxgatherer would hunt him 
up in all sorts of ways and demand new fines and fresh penalties. 

" Now, what I contend is, that it is stupid in us to thus hamper and vex and fine 
the men who enrich our city and our country, and that when we want money for 
common uses it would be much wiser for us to go for them to a man who is merely 
holding land in order to compel those who would improve it to pay him a high price. 

" Whether I am a fool or a philosopher, a philanthropist or an incendiary, there 
is one thing I am firmly convinced of — that houses and factories and steamships 
and railroads, and dry g(» ds and groceries are good things for any community to have, 
and that that is the richest community that has most of them. 

"Now, the more you tax those things the less of them you will have j but tax 
the value of land as much as you please and you will have none the less land, and it 
will be none the less useful. Tax land up to its full valae and what would happen ? 
Why simply that those who are holding land of which they make no use, would be 
compelled to give it up, and that those who wanted to make use of it could go and take 
it and improve it and use it without paying to the non-user anything for the privilege. 

" Consider, gentlemen, how this city would grow, how enormously wealth would 
increase, if all taxes were abolished which now bear on the production and accumu- 
lation and exchange of wealth. Consider how quickly the vacant spaces on this 
island would fill up could land not improved, be had by them who wanted to improve 
it, without the payment of the prices now demanded. Then extend your view to 
the whole country and see how the same policy would everywhere enormously in- 
crease wealth." 

In this frank exposition of his theories of home reform, their suggestor overlooks 
some points important to their value. His " old Dutchman " for example, is typical 
for the descendant of the first white settler from Holland on the island of " Outre 
Mer " and as such has at least the same rights as though he had been descended 
from the early natives of any Isle however fair and green, has long since ceased to 
own any considerable part of it. The territory is already largely covered besides his 
" old boots and glass bottles " with the shanties of what is known as a squatter 
colonization who usually pay no rent and often reluctantly yield to dispossession 
before the progress of a more permanent improvement. 

On the other hand* the poor old Dutchman has submitted for years to the exactions 
of repeated assessments, valuable to the contractor and the politician, as a means of 
subsistence to a constituency, in which the owner as a unit is disregarded where the 
greatest good is sought for the greatest number. Moreover he overlooks wliat the 
records will show, that a large portion of this property has already been sold for taxes, 
and assessments too onerous to be paid on wholly unproductive property, and that his 
additional taxes would be only a further lien on what is already forfeited or mainly 
for sale at far less than its accumulated cost. That to raise the enormous expenses of 
the city, unprecedented in the world for its area, would be like the nourishment 
of the Pelican which is said to feed on its own blood, or gleaning a field after it had 
been both harvested and pastured upon. The tax bills alone would soon cover 
its area as with a blanket. 

His friend should realize before any location, what those longer familiar with the 
subject have learned ; to count in the cost the yearly reminder of this past civic ex- 
travagance, and its present increase in his estimate of its use, or else to put on green 
goggles, and affect to be nourished by, that dish of shavings, however annually cooked 
and set before him. In many cases' he can "for further' information apply on the 
premises " for corroboration of these suggestions. 



tn the Revolution, 119 

He also neglects to tell, where, when all of this territory is improved by the result 
of ^dustry the next field for the imposition of new taxes which with death alone 
a e cer an' s to be found. Would not knowledge of such material pomts .n the 
Dolitkal econor^y of his own country, give value to suggestions as to the internal 

fficultieroran other. In seeking' for any undiscovered ^^^^^ ^^^^^^J^^^; 
tion, on the island of "Outre Mer," he might aid the assessors, and also answer Mr. 
Pitt's pungent query, "Gentle Shepherd, tell me where ? 



APPENDIX E. 

REPUTATION AT THE CANNON'S MOUTH AND THE CHANCES 
IN ITS TRANSMISSION (note, page 24). 



Dr Timothy' Dwight, as the nephew of General Lyman, who with his father 
was an early settler of the Territory of the Natchez, at least showed a natural senti- 
ment in vindicating the claim of his uncle as a worthy subordinate to the merit he 
Ton^idered his due. Errors have always been claimed to exist in the distribution of 
credit for service. Time long since accorded the glory of two important victories to Sir 
Wil am Johnson-one at Lake George in the summer of 1755. when Baron 
Dieskau a veteran of the Continental Wars was defeated, another the capture of 
Niagara; four yeais later. The whole life of that self educated soldier, had in all 
its detai s been sustained by his gallantry, and he early carried his son to the fie d to 
each him the art of war. Possibly he may have been remiss as Dr. Dwight has 
claimed, in distributing some of his laurels to his officers, or the New England troops 
disposed, in the existing jealousy, to claim too many of them. The moment of 
V cto y has proved best adapted to settle relative merit, while all present are tarn. liar 
with facts from observation. That passed, it has often proved as difficult where the 
credit of victory naturally falls to the Commander-as to ascertain now who aided 
to win the laurels of Caesar, Hannibal or Philip, if without record in history. 

In cases of disaster, the blame at once fall, upon the leader, regardless of who stumbled 
and no one competes for a share. His son and successor probably fought as bravely 
in his detested invasions, and yet wears in some history the willow decreed to failure 
ManJ of the friends of General de Peyster, will be gratified in his probable success m 
vindicating the honor and courage of his relative. 

Mrs. Grundy in her "Observations in Utopia" refers to a notable case of 
another military muddle in its history, she says : . j ^ 

« There was some difference of opinion here, some time since, as to the advantage 
of the correction of accepted historical error, too late for practical use. In its course 
a case was cited as occurring in the former wars Jpf Utopia. It ^^^.^^'^''^^^^^^l'^^^ 
carelessness or paramount personal engagements of a civihan acting ^s Secretary to 
a former honored Commander-in-Chief, Marshal Dauntless, an approved soldier. 



I20 Tories or Loyalists 

" That gallant officer, had intended to lead the attack in person, at the great 
battle of " Ouvrir la Porte," and to head his forces, as he had often done. He had 
prepared the plan of the engagement before it occurred, showing his special command 
in the advance. The burning of a bridge in front of his position, preventing his 
reaching that post in season, caused him to alter his plan on the day before the 
attack and to order General Fearless, his second in command to advance with his 
light division, giving him an opportunity substantially to flank the fortifications, 
necessarily passing under a heavy fire and to attack the enemy supporting them in 
great force, if he found it practicable, before he — with every possible exertion — 
could come to his relief with the needed support of heavier artillery, and equalize 
the struggle, and shell out the batteries. The division commander with a very 
inadequate force, and mainly with a small section of it, only succeeded by a desperate 
coup de main in passing the works, meeting at and above them, the entire force of 
the enemy and mainly fighting the battle with the single division in the advance, 
before his commander could possibly reach the enemy and gallantly complete the 
victory. Gen. Fearless reaching the important post above them in advance of all 
support, an-i when the Marshal came up, landed, and received its surrender." 

" After that great triumph, the commander of the entire force, to whom the honor 
of both its conception and achievement would naturally be given, sent his division 
commander — whom he loved, with the intelligence, to the seat of government, in- 
tending that he should receive his reward in thanks and promotion for the glory he 
had so materially aided in securing eventually for himself, as Napoleon alone concen- 
trated in due season the glory of the Egyptian campaign, and Nelson that of the Nile." 

" But alas ! the Citizen Secretary had affixed to the report, which was not parti- 
cular in detail, the old diagram of the proposed battle instead of that of the one that 
•was actually fought which had been duly prepared, so falsifying his explanations. The 
division commander's statements were discredited by the papers he carried ; history 
of this notable feat of arms was written and illustrations executed at once, based on 
the erroneous account, in most of which the real leader was not referred to or included, 
as all present knew to be due. All this mortification fell upon the gallant division 
commander, in place of the merit his remarkable achievement claimed, and although 
the Commander-in Chief made ample correction of the records, and of the blunder 
of his subordinate, some years after when convinced of his error, the wound the 
mistake had given to a sensitive and modest nature, went with him to the grave. The 
Secretary yet survives, but some of the people here think he was a little more careless 
as to the record of another than he could have been of his own, and wonder that 
when he read the accounts, every where printed, of his conjectured position in the 
line on that old battle day, he too did not do something for history, by correcting his 
contribution to its many errors." To avoid such delay, and to correct an error yet 
palpable ; it is proper to say after closer research, that Sir William offered the suc- 
cession to the Superintendency of Indian Affairs, to his son in his lifetime, and that 
he asked to be relieved from its duties ( page 51). 

It is claimed that Lieut. Governor Colden — whose valuable "History of the Five 
Nations" had been published in 1727, and shows his knowledge of this trust — urged 
its acceptance on Sir John. His power to confer it, was through the absence of 
Governor Tryon, as Col. Guy's letter predicted. Another clerical error, occurs on 
page 71, stating that Col. Bouquet was born at and not in Switzerland, and one 
on page 74, places Colonel Lee, where Colonel William Washington actually was, 
waiting for equipments soon effectually used at Cowpens. 

As to the Indian schools (page 66), new light has shown that this wise humanity 
is due more to personal benevolence than to the liberality of the Government. 



tn the Revolution, 121 



It has been sometimes asked, why such historical papers as the handful used in 
the preceding pamphlet, an not in the public archi-ves. The answer might be 
made that few things are in their proper place and yet many are useful. 

The fact came to the writer from Mr. Francis A. Stout, a Commitsioner of the 
State Survey, that by the defect of earlier Cartography, many places are found located 
e-ven miles away from their actual geometrical position. And yet generations have 
lived and died in them, and there is probably no diminution of the area or acreage, 
which some would realize more than this defective location. 

When visiting our State Capital some years since — in connection with his project 
of International Exchange — M. Alexandre Vaitemare, found men in one of its 
chambers packing in boxes the recently printed " Documentary History," knee deep 
in old manuscripts, which ivere history, but used as fillers. 

On his thoughtful suggestion to the Legislature, that these were not being 
correctly located, action was taken for the conservation of what remained ; and the 
learned Dr. E. B. O'Callaghan — to whom we owe so much of our State History and 
from whom the writer had this fact, was created Curator, and laboriously catalogued 
those relics. Even afterwards — certainly without his knowledge, some were abstracted 
and Mr. John Bigelow, when Secretary of State, properly sought to reclaim them ; 
even by circulars addressed to private collectors. 

Curious papers often pass through many hands, as a merchantable article, and 
their migrations are also as indefinite as those of a circulating bill. Three of the 
grand collections of Historical manuscripts, once belonging to Rev. Dr. Sprague, of 
Albany, Mr. Robert Gilmor, of Baltimore, and Mr. Tefft of Savanah, have been 
broken up, the former, after it had been offered to the Government and State 
unsucessfully, fell into the already large collection, of a private gentleman in Phila- 
delphia, where it is likely to be preserved. 

During the Civil War; as one of its evils, the high price of old paper, while the 
cruisers ruled commerce and shut out other material, brought out from many garrets 
and similar receptacles, a store of historical material of forgotten, or unknown value, 
to feed the paper mills, and weave material for^the transmission of later facts. It is 
believed that more unprinted history, was then ground up, than even now exist in 
public or private collections. 

It is stated that at that time, many old papers were discovered and exhumed from 
the outbuildings of Johnson Hall, possibly some containing the key to thii research. 
Such papers are rarely sought for public collections when exposed at public or private 
sale, but fall, on conditions showing at least consideration for the value of the lives of 
others — into the private collections of a few antiquarians, sometimes to he reduced 
to print for private circulation. 

Many find their way from Europe, especially from England. Lately the military 
papers of Lord Rawdon and Sir Henry Clinton, including beautifully executed 
military maps made by the Royal Engineers in America have been broken up and 
distributed here. 

As an illustration of devotion to such collection and its accomplishments, it is only 
just to say, that there does not probably exist a more comprehensive memorial of the 
men of mark who have been connected with American History since the settlements, 
than that formed by Dr. Emmett — elsewhere referred to. That hidden in his library 
and known only to few, in notably fine condition, by restoration and exhaustive 
illustration with portraits »nd views, is probably the most valuable and intelligible 
monument to them, erected by a single hand, from many sources, in hours devoted to 
recreation in an active and useful life. There are a number of others, very complete 
and interesting, even superior to it in some details, but as an entirety it may claim to 
be unequalled in condition, and it is the result of years of research. 



122 Ivories or Loyalists 

An incident which has occurred before this Appendix is printed, is referred to as 
practically sustaining some of the views which have been suggested. How supply 
and demand govern value, how it is increased when a thing is put in the right 
place, and how recognition of the past shows solid progress in the present. 

The venerable Robert C. Winthrop, has done a good work, in restoring the 
portrait of one by whomhis life has been doubtless influenced j additionally so as the 
friendly act of a representative of early patriotism in Massachusetts, in sympathizing 
with those of South Carolina. The old City Hall, of Charleston, South Carolina, 
had been completely restored and beautified, the interior entirely rebuilt with twelve 
spacious rooms, all with a remarkable economy ($20,000), creditable to the city 
officials, and suggestive to those of other cities. 

In its park, a life sized statue of Pitt, Earl of Chatham, erected by the citizens 
in their gratitude for the repeal of the Stamp Act, and thrown down after Clinton's 
capture, has been remounted on a new pedestal, with the old inscription tablet 
sought out and replaced. Even the signs of mutilation are suggestive to patriotism 
and of a possible similar restoration of its headless replique, in the keeping of the 
New York Historical Society. 

The Common Council and citizens of Charleston, showing their appreciation of the 
renewal of their civic home, assembled on the i 5th of November, for its rededication. 
The Mayor — Mr. Courtenay, whose heart had been in this work, made a sug- 
gestive opening address, effectively recalling the early history of the city, its position, 
and his hopes in its course, referring to the services of his first predecessor — after the 
Intendancy — the distinguished Robert Y. Hayne ; who had accepted the position, 
after serving as Governor and United States Senator. He showed how Hayne had 
labored for facilities of communication with the interior, and for the progress of the 
city, incidentally comparing these details of his life to those of De Witt Clinton. He 
then recalled a resolution passed by the citizens on his decease in 1839, to place his 
marble bust in the City Hall, and suggested its re-enactment, which, after other 
spirited addresses, was unanimously adopted. As the News and Courier reports : 

" Mayor Courtenay then said : During the visit of Governor Winthrop to this 
city in 1880, he visited the Council Chamber to see the portraits and other works of 
art owned by the city. He called the attention to the neglected condition of 
" Trumbull's Washington," a full length portrait of great value and historic interest, 
and urged that it be placed in proper hands for restoration, proffering his services 
in advising and superintending the work. By unanimous vote of the City Council 
the picture was forwarded to Governor Winthrop, and has been wonderfully 
renewed, and now presents as fine an appearance as when originally painted. It 
was completed last spring, and was received in the Boston Museum of Art and 
kept on exhibition during the summer and fall months, and is again restored to its 
familiar place on the walls of our chamber. Alderman Rogers thereupon offered 
the following resolution : Whereas, Our distinguished fellow countryman. Governor 
Winthrop, of Massachusetts, while on a visit to this city in 1880, and enjoying its 
relics of our olden time, became greatly interested in the preservation of our 
Trumbull's Washington, and wisely suggested its repair and restoration, and to 
further this end offered his most valuable services of supervision and care of this 
work ; and whereas, through his kind offices the work of restoration has now 
been finally completed, and this valued picture of our city, now in its old power 
and life, again adorns our walls. Be it, therefore, Resol-ved, That the City Council 
of Charleston gratefully acknowledge and appreciate the valuable aid and kind 
personal service of Governor Winthrop in the successful accomplishment of the 
work of restoration of our great painting of Trumbull's Washington. The resolu- 
tion was unanimously adopted. 



in the Revolution, 123 



The Mayor announced to Council that Mr. T. Bailey Myers, of New York city, 
had presented to the city three rare and valuable engravings of great local interest to 
our citizens : i. Sir Henry Clinton's map of the siege of Charleston, 1780, show- 
ing the city and the harbor, surrounding country, the fortifications, and position of the 
fleet under Vice-Admiral Mariot Arbuthnot. 2. An engraved portrait of William 
Pitt, Earl of Chatham, Secretary of State from the year 1757 to 1768, by James 
Barry, R. A., September, 1778. 3. "An exact prospect of Charleston, the 
metropolis of the Province of South Carolina, an original engraving published in 
the London Magazine, June, 1762." In this connection. Alderman White — after 
a preamble again describing this small contribution, which is kere omitted — 
"presented the following resolutions: Beit Resol-ved, That the thanks of the 
City Council are due and hereby tendered to Mr. T. Bailey Myers for these valued 
gifts, and we assure him that his liberality is highly appreciated by the citizens of 
Charleston. Resol'ved, That these engravings be hung on the walls of the mayor's 
office and carefully preserved as objects of general interest to our community. 
These resolutions were also unanimously adopted." Such recollection of past tradi- 
tions, in an ancient city, which gallantly resisted royalist, loyalist and tory, in the 
period to which these things refer, is a pleasant evidence of adhesion to early 
sympathies, and to the united action of the infant states. 

Since the foregoing paper has been printed, even its delay for some illustration, 
has evidenced how the rapid progress of the world affects the smallest atom. Its 
suggestion of the claim of " History as a Fine Art," has been by a gratifying coin- 
cidence, in that interval sustained — with his usual ability — by the Rev. Dr. 
Howard Crosby, in a paper presented before the Seventy-eighth Anniversary Meeting 
of the New York Historical Society, while the changes in the method of corres- 
pondence, has also lately recalled editorial notice in the columns of the "Times.' 

Concurrence of thought, we know naturally exists js to many subjects of varied 
importance in a nation of fifty millions, including great intelligence. Differences of 
conclusion are often more conspicuous. The comparison of opinions in public in 
any form, may demonstrate the value of convictions to some, call forth the sympathy 
of others, who have entertained without expressing them, or at least open them 
to correction. Thought has always been considered a safe predecessor to action. 

At least, in public affairs it would appear that advanced methods of legislation 
claim careful deliberate consideration by their presenters as well as by the representative, 
and that hasty action is only justified where circumstances demand the experiment. 
This admitted. Dr. Crosby, who as a private citizen takes an active interest in 
current public administration, might be induced hereafter to show, how the entire 
record of American statesmanship — conformed to the example of many of its 
former and present elements, was affording a noble example of self devotion in 
constructing history, and that the creation as well as the condensation, had just 
claim to be considered as a fine Art. 

Many wise and pertinent suggestions, contained in the President's recent message, 
appear to offer material for the action of statesmanship, rising above party or local 
considerations, and according with a widely expressed sentiment in favor of such 
more considerate and prudent legislation as would seem to best assure the prosperity 
and permanency of our institutions. 



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